________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
We did that quite often. It might be for folks wanting to be updated or it might be people
who'd come down to look at concerns. I remember Congressman [Louis] Stokes came down
from Ohio. He had been most concerned that people had said we weren't really doing our job
in hiring minorities. The antiproject groups had attacked the project from that standpoint. I
think we had done a pretty fair job of minority emphasis and it had been a part of the project
all along. As a consequence, Congressman Bevill knew that, and he invited Congressman
Stokes to come down and see for himself. So, he brought him down. During that trip we
broke out the facts and figures and briefed him on them. I believe that convinced him that we
were on the right track and doing the very best we could in the area and doing pretty well.
Thereafter, he supported the project.
On the opposing side, Congressman Bob Edgar came down from Pennsylvania. He had been
a very outspoken critic of the project before that. He asked a lot of tough questions, and we
gave him all straight answers, but he remained a very outspoken critic of the project after
that. So, we had folks of all ilk down there, showing them the project. Typically, we would
make that helicopter run so they could see the immensity of the project, and we'd also land at
our area office in the divide cut where our area and resident engineers would talk about the
project and where they were that day, how much was already done, and how much remained.
We could then talk budget issues or percentages and that sort of thing.
South Atlantic Division had put together an intercom setup that they would bring to the
helicopters because when you get different helicopters from different people you never know
how many headsets you're going to get or what works. Their setup had something like eight
headphones so we could give everybody a headset. Thus, we always had communications so
that we could talk in the air and point out features as we flew along.
Q:
Were the costs of the project one of the big issues--probably the biggest issue outside of the
environmental?
A:
Yes and no. The overall cost of the project was always featured when people would attack it.
Years earlier, costs had been a factor in the early construction of some of the first of the
dams. I know the South Atlantic Division and General LeTellier had been involved with
early cost estimates. By my time frame, that was history. We had already spent about half of
the project. We were certainly doing big ticket items up where we were. There was a lot left
to be spent, and I think that increased the zeal of the folks against the project. They figured
they really needed to get it stopped immediately. Of course, it made the point for those who
wanted to continue the project too--there was an investment on the ground.
Even the environmental issues were typically used as an opportunistic way to oppose the
project. I mean, the people against the project were primarily brought together by the
railroads, who were trying to avoid the competition of the waterways. They led the fight and
they signed up the environmentalists to aid their actions. Certainly there were valid
environmental considerations, but in the end, I'm pretty proud of the way the Corps
addressed the environment, did things the right way--used good engineering practices to
solve environmental problems.
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