________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
Q:
One area that you tried to set up a design center in but weren't successful was in the
Superfund area. I wondered if you could talk a little bit about that. It was Huntington and
Nashville that you wanted. This was something you were leading, right?
A:
Yes.
Q:
Okay. The division didn't get it.
A:
Military construction was another mission that came in. Chronologically, the military
mission came before the environmental, but we can talk environmental first.
Q:
All right.
A:
When Superfund came about, the Corps approached it with great eagerness, like we do
everything, and it appeared that we were going to have a rather good program. The
newspapers and magazines at the time were covering quite a bit of the hazardous waste
problem in the United States, the river in Cleveland that burned and others of a sensational
nature.
A national top 10 list was created. One of the sites on the top 10 list was Chemdyne in
Hamilton, Ohio, just north of Cincinnati. So, when the Chief put the Corps forward in getting
involved, we offered, or were offered, to EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] for our
abilities as executors.
In the Ohio River Division we saw it as an opportunity too. Because of our location, with
Chemdyne, we would, without a doubt, have an early start on things, and so therefore should
develop an expertise and capability to do it. It was also apparent that not every division and
district was going to be able to do it.
The Chief started off in the beginning by saying, "I don't know how it will be working out,
but we will want to establish expertise centers. We're not sure how we're going to manage
this, but we might have one, two, five, some number of centers, depending on what
develops."
So, we in the division jumped, and I think Missouri River had a very early start. We did
Chemdyne using Huntington District. We went to school, sent some people off to be trained,
and used the Missouri River Division to help us. We did most of the design work, and then
they reviewed it, so we weren't sure what kind of help they were providing.
Out of that, though, when the call came that, "We're thinking about two centers. Who'd like
to be one?" we submitted our proposal to be a center.
Dick Armstrong was Chief of Engineering and Jack Kiper was Chief of Construction. Jimmy
Bates arrived to be Chief of Planning. We felt we were really in a good position from the
standpoint of being central, within shooting distance of many of the nation's problems,
considering our area included Pittsburgh, Cleveland, near Chicago, over to St. Louis, and
down to Tennessee.
297
Previous Page
