John W. Morris
REMARKS BY
LTG J.W. MORRIS
CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, US ARMY
WATER RESOURCES CONGRESS
NEW ORLEANS, LA
15 FEBRUARY 1980
Let's Get Back to Work
The time has come for the Water Resource Developers of this country to start
rolling up their sleeves and getting back to work. We have been holding back long
enough. In fact, we have been resting so long that we have gotten somewhat out of
condition, and before we can truly get the machinery of water resource development
into high gear I expect we will have to go through a training period. Two years
ago-and even last year to some extent-I did not feel as optimistic or confident as I
do now that there will be a major upturn in the development of our nation's water
resources. Today I will review with you some of the reasons for this change in attitude
and prospects for the years ahead.
In looking back over the resource development program in our country there are
several periods which seem to have clear identity and character and which we need to
recognize and understand -" Understand" because each has taken a logical place in the
process of adjustment associated with American Water Resource Development. These
periods are relatively short and generally quite recent.
Some here might be surprised to learn that several major Corps of Engineers
projects started as make-work projects in the depth of the Depression: Fort Peck in
Montana, Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, Lake Texoma on the Texas-
Oklahoma border and Conchas Dam in New Mexico, to name a few.
The 1927 flood on the Lower Mississippi took over 300 lives and drowned
thousands of miles from Cairo to the Gulf, and the hurricane-spawned flood at Lake
Okeechobee in 1928 took 1,836 lives. In the 1930s there were floods in Kansas and
Pennsylvania, California and Kentucky, New England and in the Ohio and Mississippi
Valleys. The latter alone left a million people homeless. At almost the same time our
prairies were stripped and dust filled the air and covered the earth over thousands of
square miles.
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