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that want to use the river and its tributaries for rec- reation. But the Corps' primary purpose is flood con- trol to protect lives and property. That's really the whole premise that got this ball rolling back in those early days. I think it is quite normal that any time you get a federal agency involved in any kind of a situation like this, then you have an automatic scapegoat. As a rule, they are the ones you are going to turn to when you are unhappy with something that happens, and I don't think that is an abnormality of any kind. I think the Corps is very aware that they are in that position and, therefore, they try to deal with it as best they can. I think maybe a good example of that situation was the 25-year flood that hit this end of the river just this past spring. So here they were dealing with a situation where we had farmland and what have you underwater, and up in the north end of the river they had boats sitting with their hottoms in the mud because there wasn't enough water on that end. How do you control that? It becomes a pretty tenacious problem to deal with. Then we have the reverse sit.uation from time to time. They have too much water at the north end, and we don't have enough down here. You can't always make it work for everyone. So that gets us to One of the purposes of why we are here today. Jim and Larry both outlined very plainly that it's an opportunity to share some ideas, to talk to each other, to communi- cate, to get to know each other, and to work together to make the system work as hest it can for everyone involved. !t's one of those kinds of situations in which I firmly believe that communication is the key to keep everyone as happy as we possibly can. We would like to have everybody in this room. from all ten Missouri River Basin states, he happy 100% of 4 the time. That's, I'm sure, a bit of a shot at unreality. But if we can keep 90% of you happy 90% of the time or somewhere in that realm, I think that we can say that we have done a good job. So, again reiterating, the whole thing today is to share ideas, to get your thoughts out. The Corps is here to listen to your thoughts. We had a meeting in Nebraska City a few months ago with Congressman Doug Bereuter, who represents Southeastern Nebraska. There were a cou- ple of ideas that came out of it which I think have some merit, and people are looking into it to see if they can make it work. That's really what this whole thing is about. To exchange ideas and to get to know each other a little better. Looking around the room and looking over t.he pro- gram, one thing becomes very apparent. I'm not a hy- drologist, but we do have some here who understand flowage end this type of thing, and ,,'ith the combi- nation of their expertise and those of you that are as Larry referred to "customers" or "users of the system," we hope some good ideas will evolve. If there is anything along the way that my staff or I can do to help, please let us know. Congressman Bereuter has a representative from his office here to- day. Congressman Tom Coleman, who is just across the line in Missouri, we know is also interested in the project. Is there anyone here from Tom's office? Okay. If you have discussions, problems, or what have you where you think we can be of value, please let us know because we want to be a positive part of the process to make this thing work. As you go home from here tonight with a little better understanding of how the system works, I think we probably will have achieved what we are trying to do. Thank you all very much for coming. We appreciate it and hope you enjoy your day here in Iowa.