992 
The role of the Lake Survey District relates very closely to the overall mission 
of the Corps of Engineers on the Great Lakes. This mission is carried out by the 
U.S. Army Engineer Division, North Central and its five Great Lakes districts— 
Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, St. Paul, and Lake Survey. The mission includes basin 
planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of improvements 
for navigation, flood control, and beach erosion; and also participation in joint 
U.S.-Canadian investigations and regulatory operations related to the Great 
Lakes system. The Lake Survey District also provides engineer consulting serv- 
ices to the international boards and committees directing the use of Great Lakes 
waters and, as part of the Corps of Engineers, participates in cooperative investi- 
gations with other U.S. and Canadian agencies. The Lake Survey District pro- 
vides a considerable amount of project level support to the Corps of Hngineers 
Districts committed to the Great Lakes and conducts much of the research 
related to the Corps’ overall mission on the Lakes. The highly skilled civilian 
cartographic technicians employed by the Lake Survey District provide an 
immediately available, flexible capability to meet sharply increased demands 
for maps to support military commitments around the world. 
Specific and detailed identification at this time of those functions of the 
Lake Survey District that could appropriately be transferred to NOAA might 
be legislatively cumbersome and the resultant inflexibility might well handicap 
both NOAA and the Corps of Engineers. Deferral of such identification until 
missions can be examined in the full context of final alignments and organiza- 
tional mechanisms seems both proper and prudent. A few examples of some of 
the impacts of mission transfers illustrate the types of interface problems that 
require detailed consideration. 
The Lake Survey District’s responsibilities in surveying for, and compiling 
and publishing, navigation charts are not confined to the Great Lakes but also 
include New York State Barge Canals, Minnesota-Ontario border lakes, Lake 
Champlain, and outflow rivers. Imposition of these responsibilities on NOAA 
seems inconsistent with the role assigned it by H.R. 13247. 
The research mission of the Lake Survey District focuses primarily on appli- 
cations. Unless NOAA is to have a navigation, beach erosion, and flood control 
project mission, transfer of the research mission would separate the Corps from 
the applied research on which its project development depends and thereby intro- 
duce a need for a coordinative mechanism where none is now required. 
The Lake Survey District provides consulting engineer services to international 
boards and committees operating on the Great Lakes. Much, but not all, of this 
mission derives from Corps’ membership on these boards and committees. Staff 
engineers consulting for these boards and committees also support other Corps 
of Engineers Districts with project missions on the Great Lakes. Transfer of 
the consulting engineer service mission to NOAA would probably cause NOAA 
and the Corps of Engineers to maintain some duplicate staff. 
Mr. Lennon. Mr. Keith. 
Mr. Kerru. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 
Mr. Lennon. It might be well, Mr. Secretary, if you would just 
come forward and join the general at the witness table and then the 
members may identify the witness to whom they direct the questions. 
Mr. Kerrn. The observations of the witnesses that we have had here 
are most enlightening and most provocative. There is only a limited 
time that most of us, with our varied responsibilities, can give to this. 
So we are very grateful for the in-depth research and recommendations 
that you gentlemen are making. 
T feel very inadequate, particularly as T am somewhat handicapped 
by a bursa that has been requiring codeine for the last week. But I 
would like to ask you, general, just to show how provocative I can be, 
who killed Lake Erie? : 
General Korscr. I think, sir, in terms of who killed Lake Erie, I 
would have to say the people. I would also like to point out, however, 
that even if there were no people, in time, Lake Erie would die. 
Mr. Kerrn. What I have in mind in asking this question is that had 
there been a NOAA, in addition to the Engineers and the River Basin 
