A typical drop consisted of three to five C-130 "Hercules" aircraft loads of supplies operating against a time-on-target of 6 a.m. This called for District members to make the initial pick-up of loads at Fort Richardson at 1:30 a.m., completing delivery to the Elmendorf ramp by 3 a.m.

The "go", "no-go" decision rested with the Alaska District until the loaded C-130s were under the control of the CCT. Thus, the Corps had to stick closely to the rigging phase and ramp delivery, and have complete weather watches during the preceding 24 hours, and in particular up to the point of aircraft take-off. When one loaded flight had to abort because of foul weather, everything had to be retrograded and the cargo taken back to the post for temporary storage. The mission decision had to be early and right, therefore, to avoid massive extra work.

What started out as an improved training exercise for the 616th MAG turned out to be a valuable experience for everyone involved in this multi-service endeavor. In retrospect it is difficult to judge who derived the most benefit

neat soft bump was most impressive; the product of military professionalism. No fuel spills; no damaged vehicles.

Through this operation also, BLM learned that 360 barrels of fuel (scaled down from 600 because of reduced needs in the field), two military vehicles, and tons of supplies could be delivered to a spot in the wilderness with virtually no terrain damage.

Illustrative of the environmental care with which the program was managed, throughout the spring and summer the two designated representatives (District and BLM), and the Corps' environmental monitor, watched over compliance with the stipulations and even consulted and agreed on locations of all drill and excavation sites and access routes before allowing any equipment to move. They required that anywhere overland movement of drilling or support equipment was needed, a sinuous route would be used to protect the aesthetic view and avoid creating straight-line surface disturbance patterns. They ensured that test pits that were dug for

because: (1) several MAG pilots gained extra training in dropping "live" non-standard loads. Their CCT became more proficient in establishing themselves in unfamiliar terrain under actual operating conditions in the Alaskan winter; (2) the Brigade's hard-working riggers learned what volume and quality of work they could produce under pressure; and (3) the District gained valuable time in its exploration program through air-dropping supplies and simultaneously avoiding undue environmental damage. The drops of vehicles and fuel were so satisfactory that air-drops of an additional 25 tons of drill steel and associated equipment were added. Seeing a 5-ton tracked personnel carrier floating to the snow-blanketed earth under a trio of 100-foot diameter parachutes, and settling safely with a

material samples were refilled and contoured, and they agreed on any required rehabilitation efforts upon leaving each site. Rehabilitation work was verified and recorded on a check sheet signed by both parties. One of the stipulations they oversaw required drill tailings to be spread out in a layer less than two inches thick. The bear, moose, caribou, and other creatures of the basin will encounter little evidence of human presence in their domain.

Early this March, a year after the equipment was taken in, demobilization began. Three of the heaviest vehicles were dug out of the snow and dewinterized for their trip back across snow up to 12 feet deep. Aside from breaking through the lake ice at 10°F, fighting winds so fierce that walking was nearly impossible, throwing Nod

Summer trace of cat well tracks, dropping a wrench into a gear box, train route. white-out conditions that made flying extremely difficult, and being caught in the worst storm of the season when only a mile from Denali Highway, everything went fine.

The three pieces making the trip, the D-7 cat, Nodwell and rubber-tired swamp buggy, moved in file, fastened to each other with cables for safety and feeling their way back across the snow-covered tundra. The rest of the equipment at Watana, except the house trailer, was air-lifted by helicopter to the highway for trailering to Anchorage this summer. The emergency shelter house is being left on site for the time being for the convenience of BLM teams engaged in their field operations.

The supplemental report completed in February 1979 has been transmitted to OMB. It verifies by exploration, by examination of some 4900 feet of drill holes, by the testing of borrow materials, and the study of several seismic lines, that the Watana damsite is more geologically favorable than first judged on the basis of prior existing surface and seismic information. In the

update study, the cost of the project did increase from the 1975 estimate of $1.5 billion to $2.3 billion, but with the re-analysis of the coal alternative and associated benefits the all-important benefit-to-cost ratio was calculated at $1.40 to $1.00.

When OMB releases the report, and after the final impact statement is filed with EPA for 30 days, the District could use the $5.4 million appropriated by Congress for the Alaska Hydroelectric Development Fund. The authorization included in the Water Resource Development Act of 1976 established that fund and permitted a joint partnership in which the state could fund construction of hydropower facilities, with the Corps as construction agent for the Federal Government. Thus, the state would become ultimate owner, with the U.S. Government providing construction expertise and guarantee of design and cost over-runs. This is a concept that goes even beyond the President's 1978 cost-sharing proposal presented for water resource development projects.

Events,
Deeds &
Deliber-
ations

Ground Water May Aid Alaska Development

Large untapped and virtually unexplored ground water resources could play a significant role in the future development of Alaska, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, report.

The USGS report says that the potential for ground water development far exceeds current use in areas of the state not affected by permafrost (perennially frozen ground) that severely restricts ground water availability in northern Alaska. For a rough comparison, the report notes that the average discharge from ground water reservoirs to streams is about 100 billion gallons per day, while ground water use was only 50 million gallons per day in 1975. Large amounts of ground water are stored in alluvium and glacial outwash deposits that underlie coastal basins and valleys.

Although Alaska has enormous surface water resources, many streams are frozen for much of the year and most contain glacial silt that makes them unacceptable for human use.

"The ground water resource," the report said, "presents both an opportunity and a challenge: an opportunity to circumvent many of the problems involved in the use of surface water, and a challenge to deal with ground water development problems such as local water-level declines, depletion of streamflow, saltwater intrusion, and ground water pollution. All of these are significant problems at some places and are potential problems at others."

A major factor limiting ground water development in Alaska is the need for much additional ground water information. The report recommends that collection of basic data and investigations of ground water hydrology in the state be intensified.

Copies of the report, "Summary Appraisals of the Nation's Ground Water Resources-Alaska," by Chester Zenone and Gary Anderson, published as USGS Professional Paper 813-P, may be purchased for $1.60 each from the Branch of Distribution, USGS, 1200 South Eads St., Arlington, VA 22202. Orders must include check or money order payable to the U.S. Geological Survey. Copies also may be purchased over the counter only from the Public Inquiries Office, USGS, 108 Skyline Bldg., 508 Second Ave., Anchorage, Alaska.

Interior To Attack Desertification

The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management will have a leading role in the development of a national plan to prevent further spread of deserts in the United States, Under Secretary James Joseph has announced.

Joseph said the BLM, which manages vast expanses of arid land in the West, will cooperate with all appropriate Federal and international agencies in developing and coordinating efforts to combat desertification.

Desertification is the result of both natural and man-made conditions that lead to the formation of deserts and creation of desert-like conditions.

"Deserts cover about 3 of the land surface of the world," Joseph said. "We know that once much of the present desert areas were green and productive. For example, the deserts of our southwest once supported thriving communities of a people we call Anasazi. Prolonged drought, along with other factors, forced the Anasazi to leave the area. Deserts are spreading even today. The vast Sahara Desert of North Africa covers an area larger than the United States and sand dunes are slowly encroaching onto adjoining lands at a rate of 60 to 700 feet per year.

"Misuse and abuse of arid lands causes them to deteriorate to desert conditions. Desertification and drought are man's most bitter enemies and pose a grave threat to the growth of many developing countries." Joseph said he expected the plan to be finished in 12 months.

New Technique Tracks Sewage Dumped At Sea

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists have identified a biochemical technique that can be used to trace sewage in coastal areas, a matter of vital interest to environmental managers in heavily populated parts of the coast. The newly identified technique uses coprostanol, a steroid thought to be produced exclusively by bacteria in the intestines of mammals, to measure sewage in offshore sediments. According to NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratories in Miami, the coprostanol method promises to become the standard for sewage-pollution detection. The lab developed the technique as part of a major ecosystem study NOAA has conducted in the New York Bight, the 15,000-square-mile continental shelf area off the New York-New Jersey coast. Because sewage sludge, the end product of waste-water treatment, is dumped in the Bight, scientists and citizens are concerned about sewage contamination there. But sewage is difficult to trace in the chemically complex marine environment. The Commerce Department researchers turned to steroids-biochemical compounds that resist deterioration in the environment. The steroid coprostanol was found to be present in contaminated marine sediments, but not in uncontaminated sediments, and appeared to be stable enough to be used as a tracer of sewage. Subsequent work led to a "percent-coprostanol" term that permits the scientists to estimate how much of a sample's organic matter is sewage-derived.

With the technique, a map of the New York Bight has been developed showing sewage pollution centered in a basin near the sewage-sludge dump site, and diminishing rapidly with distance away from the dump site. The highest value found was 15 percent coprostanol in the highly contaminated black muds near the dump site. Pure sewage contains more than 30 percent. (Marine Fisheries Review)

Coming Events

Water Pollution Control Federation Conference, Houston, Texas, October 7-12.

Coastal Society's Fifth Annual Meeting, entitled "Resource Allocation Issues in the Coastal Environment," Newport, R.I., November 7-8.

International Symposium on Drought, New Delhi, India, December 2-7.

International Symposium on the Hydrology of Areas of Low Precipitation, Canberra, Australia, December 10-13.

***] Bookshelf

"The Nation's Water Resources 1975-2000," the Second National Water Assessment by the U. S. Water Resources Council, is an excellent report that provides considerable data useful to water resource development planners and practitioners. It is available from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 for $3.25. Stock Number 052-045-000510-7.

Can Organizations Change: Environmental Protection, Citizen Participation, and the Corps of Engineers, by Mazmanian and Nienaber, states in its foreword that "The Army Corps of Engineers seems to be making a concerted effort to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law, calling for greater public involvement and environmental awareness in the decision-making process.'

The authors use five case studies of Corps' projects to demonstrate how the Corps' "apparently atypical response" to demands for change affected its missions, organizational structure, planning and field activities. Available in hardcover from the Brookings Institution, 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036, at $11.95. 220 pages.

Toward a Solar Civilization by Robert H. Williams, portrays solar energy as a very major resource. It considers the present economic limitations of solar energy, but offers thoughts on how to overcome development obstacles. Electricity, fuels, and third world development are among the numerous topics discussed by the book's contributed papers.

The book is available from the MIT Press, 28 Carleton St., Cambridge, MA 02142 for $12.50, hardcover.

Changes
of Command

Major General James A. Johnson has been named as the Deputy Chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He assumed that office in June and succeeded Major General Bates C. Burnell, who retired after 34 years of military service. Gen. Johnson had been serving as Division Engineer, North Atlantic Division of the Corps in New York City. In his new capacity, he will be the principal assistant and advisor to Chief of Engineers Lieutenant General John W. Morris, on both the military and civil works activities of the Corps.

Replacing Gen. Johnson in the North Atlantic Division is Major General Bennett L. Lewis. He was assigned to that post in July, from previous duty as Commander, U.S. Army Armament Research and Development Command, Dover, N.J.

Major General E. R. Heiberg III had just been named the new Director of Civil Works for the Corps of Engineers, at press time. He replaces Maj. Gen. Charles I. McGinnis, who has retired.

Brigadier General Henry J. Hatch is the new Pacific Ocean Division Engineer, with duty station in Honolulu. He has replaced Brig. Gen. Maurice D. Roush, who has retired. Gen. Hatch was most recently assigned to the U.S. Army Engineer School at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Colonel Max B. Scheider has assumed duties as the New England Division Engineer in Waltham, Massachusetts. The former deputy division engineer, Scheider replaces Col. John P. Chandler, who has retired.

Colonel Ted E. Bishop assumed command of the U.S. Army Coastal Engineering Research Center at Fort Belvoir, replacing Col. John H. Cousins who has retired. Bishop was previously with the Planning Division, Civil Works Directorate, Office of the Chief of Engineers.

Colonel William H. Reno became the Memphis District Engineer in June. He replaced Col. Robert W. Lockridge. Col. Reno had attended the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania prior to the Memphis assignment.

Colonel George P. Johnson has been named Buffalo District Engineer, replacing Col. Daniel D. Ludwig, who has been reassigned as deputy division engineer, Middle East Division (Rear). Johnson was most recently with the Office of the Chief of Staff, U.S. Army.

Colonel Donald J. Palladino has become the Fort Worth District Engineer, and replaces Col. John F. Wall, Jr., who has been reassigned to the Office of the Chief of Engineers in Washington. Col. Palladino had been deputy division engineer, Middle East Division.

In a July reassignment, Colonel Nelson P. Conover took over as Director, U.S. Army Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, Mississippi. He replaced Col. John L. Cannon, who becomes the deputy division engineer, Lower Mississippi Valley Division, also in Vicksburg.

Also in July, Colonel Samuel P. Collins became District Engineer in Vicksburg. He replaced Col. John H. Moellering, who has moved to Washington as executive officer to the new Army Chief of Staff designate. Collins had most recently been an assistant director of Civil Works, Office of the Chief of Engineers.

Colonel Paul F. Kavanaugh was named Sacramento District Engineer in August, replacing Col. Donald M. O'Shei. Col. Kavanaugh had been serving with the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, Fort Monroe, Virginia.

Colonel Henry J. Thayer became Walla Walla District Engineer in August, succeeding Colonel Christopher J. Allaire. Thayer had most recently been Chief of the Facilities Engineering Division at the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, Fort Monroe, Virginia. Allaire has been assigned to Fort Lewis, Washington, as Facilities Engineer.

Colonel Robert J. Dacey became St. Louis District Engineer in August, replacing Colonel Leon E. McKinney. Dacey has been assigned since 1977 with the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations and Plans, at the headquarters of U.S. Army, Europe and Seventh Army in West Germany.

Colonel Robert V. Vermillion became Detroit District Engineer in August. He replaces Colonel Melvyn D. Remus, who has been reassigned to Europe. Vermillion was serving as chief of Management Division, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Engineer, at the headquarters of U.S. Army, Europe, in Heidelberg, West Germany.

Lieutenant Colonel Leon K. Moraski assumed duties as Seattle District Engineer in July. He succeeded Colonel John A. Poteat, Jr., whose new assignment was not immediately announced. Moraski had been serving as Executive Director to the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Materiel Development and Readiness Command in Virginia.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Water Resources Support Center has been established at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The Center will organize, manage and perform studies and analyses for meeting regional, multi-regional and national water resources objectives as well as other consultive services in the areas of water resources management and development. It will also publish Water Spectrum.