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<br />this interminable delay is to be stretched out even further, and <br /> <br />perhaps into the millennium, if the proposed principles are adopted, <br /> <br />The ingredients for this delay are c.'ntained in the quixotic assump- <br /> <br />tions that everyone from the man in the street to the man in the <br /> <br />White House should be directly involved in the planning process, <br /> <br />assisted by layer upon layer of governmental agencies. . <br /> <br />The more obvious tool for delay is the fluctuation of <br /> <br />the 50-called discount rate. This fluctuation is not new but only <br /> <br />aggravated by the proposed principles, as I shall illustrate. <br /> <br />In 1965 a series of disastrous floods occurred in the <br /> <br />state of Colorado with the tragic loss of over twenty human lives <br /> <br />and staggering property damages in excess of a half a billion <br /> <br />dollars. The greatest flood in terms of water volume, but not in <br /> <br />property damage, occurred in the Bijou Creek drainage of north- <br /> <br />eastern Colorado. The Corps ~f Engineers was immediately requested, <br /> <br /> <br />among other things, to initiate planning leading to the control of <br /> <br /> <br />floods on Bijou Creek. By late 1969 the corps had developed a <br /> <br /> <br />feasible plan for controlling floods orginating in that ar.ea. <br /> <br />Those plans were then submitted for review at the Washington level, <br /> <br />but a funny thing happened. They were returned to the Omaha office <br /> <br />for reformulation using a new and higher interest rate. Under this <br /> <br />new criteria. the corps presented its revised plans to the state <br /> <br />water board about two weeks ago, almost seven years after the 1965 <br /> <br />-3- <br />