Corps park ranger talks with children.
lowest price gets the job. The accumulated savings are
You told the Water Resource Congress in New
mounting every year by millions of dollars.
Orleans in February-I think the same speech you just
referred to-that it was time for water resources
Energy is clearly a high priority. How do you expect
developers to get back to work. How does this jibe
the new national emphasis on energy to affect Corps
with today's stress on conservation and our country's
programs.
money problems?
It relates directly to conservation because in that
It already has. We are fortunate that we were able to
get a couple of studies going four years ago-before
speech I said we can't really get back to work until we
the energy crunch worsened. Those studies will soon
have integrated conservation into our water planning,
be available. One of them, the National Waterways
just as we integrated environmental criteria. We've got
Study, has to do with water transportation, which
to be able to demonstrate to the people that we've
indirectly affects energy because so much of the cargo
observed conservation measures. The nation's current
transported is coal and other energy products. The
economic difficulties are another matter. I suspect that
we risk being delayed more by money than anything
else, but I foresee a fairly large investment in the water
program. There's much to be done. I believe the
necessary conservation measures, and our economic
problems will affect when, not if, we resume
developing water resources.
Our decision to maintain a minimum fleet and
contract out some of our dredging marks a new era in
water resources development. It must have made you
nostalgic when the dredge Essayons was retired.
The Essayons.
other study is of hydropower, which of course has a
It did. The Essayons, though, was retired for two
direct impact. We are looking at all the potential large
reasons; one, she's not really sea-worthy any more,
and small scale dam sites in the country. I think the
and the cost to fix her up was prohibitive. And two,
study is going to prove we can at least double our
we do have a new larger dredge coming into service
hydropower output. We are assessing all forms of
very soon. Our fleet is changing though because the
hydropower potential: lowhead, pumpback, run-of-
dredging industry is putting the hopper dredge
river, major power projects, and additions to existing
business into the national private enterprise system.
projects. It's going to be a most helpful study.
I think the program that put dredging out into the
The Corps has studied, as you said, the nation's
competitive arena is already proving to be a good idea
waterways and its hydropower resources. Do we need
Though it was painful for our people to give up those
a national flood management study?
missions, the taxpayers are now getting a lot more
dredging for their money because of competition. The
Well, we need to at least identify the major flood
government fleet wins some dredging contracts and the
problems in the United States. Some people seem to
private industry fleet wins some but in each case the
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