Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
certainly with Senator Byrd. In the Section 202 authorizing legislation, they had come to
grips with that question and decided, "Yeah, these communities we ought to have." Secretary
Gianelli, from his viewpoint, didn't see it that way.
Another issue in the Section 202 project was providing alternate housing. We thought we had
developed a pretty creative approach for a nonstructural solution. The Corps was always
being criticized, "You always only find structural solutions. Why don't you look for
nonstructural solutions to some of these flood control problems?" We found, near
Williamson, one rather large draw that we thought would support a new community. Our
intent was to build a housing community--I forget the number, some 65 units would fit in
there. Not many, but a lot considering the size of communities we were dealing with. Then
people could move to that new housing and give up areas of the floodplain. We then would
remove the vacated houses and that area wouldn't have to be protected at the high cost of
floodwalls. It was a cheaper solution--a nonstructural solution. Also, not a normal solution,
so we very excitedly briefed the secretary that we'd found something that we thought would
hold down costs. We also had arranged for the West Virginia housing folks to take care of
running it so it would not be federally maintained. We were just going to deliver the project.
We thought he would find this approach desirable, and he was absolutely opposed to it.
So, in the meantime, we still had mayors calling us every week and Senator Byrd calling us
concerning the project. That took place in the Kentucky part of the project, although we just
never had the congressional visibility or interest there. We were progressing in Pineville and
Barbourville on projects. Pineville, very specifically, had a loop in the river where the river
leaves the mountains and the river flow makes a big bend away from the mountains. That
was just enough space for people to build a town. Trouble was, when the floodwaters came
up, they inundated everything below that mountain in the valley, to include the whole town.
That was Pineville.
Finding innovative solutions for Matewan was a challenge and involved the whole town,
which made it costly. This was also a program--the 202 program--that took a lot of my
personal time. Maybe this one took more time than the TennTom because there was so
much consternation in the secretary's office. They were always returning stuff to be retooled
and arguing against our budget projections and insisting we couldn't do certain things.
Basically, I took the position not to compromise our ethical position. When told that
something couldn't be accomplished because we weren't ready, then I would correct that
misrepresentation.
Secretary Gianelli perhaps felt he would lose on the Section 202 affair with Senator Byrd and
tried to make it not work through us by claiming we were unable to deliver. We knew we
could deliver and had testified to Senator Byrd that we could deliver. The senator, in fact,
believed us from the start and knew from past experience that we could deliver. So, the
secretary's working 202 the way he did was not creditable to Senator Byrd; that's why he
kept putting the pressure on the secretary.
280
Previous Page
