Corps history projects, politics

• By GERARD SHIELDS
• Advocate Washington bureau
• Published: Nov 9, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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WASHINGTON – Some historians say the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is older than the Republic itself. Gen. George Washington named Continental Army Col. Richard Gridley as his chief engineer to fortify Bunker Hill in 1775. Others point to President Thomas Jefferson’s formal creation of the Corps at the new West Point Academy in 1802.

The Corps’ influence over the nation’s water policy, however, was born in 1824 when the U.S. Supreme Court gave it authority over river navigation. After the ruling, Congress dedicated money to improve navigation on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

One of the first projects was spearheaded by engineer Henry Shreve, for whom Shreveport is named. In 1831, he sliced a channel across the neck of a Mississippi curve called Turnbull Bend, creating a shortcut for river commerce.

But over time, that inadvertently caused more of the Mississippi to pour into the nearby Atchafalaya River, which threatened to eventually cut off the critical flow of water to Baton Rouge and New Orleans. From the 1950s through the 1980s, the Corps built a series of structures to keep the Atchafalaya from capturing the Mississippi.

“The potential economic implications would have been profound,” said Martin Reuss, a retired Corps historian.

From the outset, concerns over Corps spending surfaced. An 1836 Congressional committee report complained about 25 projects being over budget.

But it wasn’t until the Mississippi River flood of 1850 that Congress began thinking of long-range plans to wrestle the Mississippi into submission to ease navigation.

The river naturally changed course over time, and engineers decided they couldn’t let it run wild over lands that were being increasingly developed. Congress directed the Corps to determine the most practical way to improve travel and control flooding.

They accepted the controversial theory of engineer Edward Humphreys, who during the Civil War recommended what would become known as the “levees only” policy. In addition to “straight-jacketing” the river, the walls would protect areas from flooding, Humphreys reasoned.

In a 2004 report, the National Wildlife Federation and the activist group Taxpayers for Common Sense chronicled historical tension over the Corps between the president and Congress.

As early as 1902, the influence of Congress on Corps projects was criticized. Ohio lawmaker Theodore Burton, chairman of the House Rivers and Harbors Committee, tired of members pursuing projects for their districts. Burton barred authorization of unfunded projects. But by 1910, with Burton gone, Congress reverted to stuffing projects into Corps legislation.

The most influential event in the history of the Corps was the 1927 Great Mississippi Flood, which left a million people homeless when levees broke in 145 places in four states, including Louisiana.

The flood proved the “levees only” policy — which ignored other options, including creating spillways, floodways and using the Atchafalaya as an outlet — was a calamity.