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Train's allies
Q: Mr. Train, were you assisted by any particular environmental advisors, either inside or outside EPA?
MR. TRAIN: I don't really think there were any of major importance. There certainly wasn't anybody on the outside that I regularly looked to for environmental guidance. There were people I had known in the scientific area such as Starker Leopold, a zoologist at the University of California at Berkeley and the son of Aldo Leopold. I probably had more contact with him when I was at the Interior Department than after I went to EPA. Stanley Cain, a professor at the University of Michigan and Assistant Secretary of the Interior, was another source. I mentioned Keith Caldwell earlier. Ian McHarg, a landscape architect at the University of Pennsylvania, was another one. There were many contacts of this sort, but I certainly wouldn't think of them as mentors. That sounds a little self-important, but the fact is, in the early days, EPA was pretty much out front in environmental affairs. It was unlike the situation today, where there is a wide body of people with experience and wisdom in the environmental area. In those days, I won't say CEQ and EPA stood alone; but we were definitely out front.
I should qualify this by saying that as EPA Administrator, you get so busy you don't really have much time to talk to eminent people. You are moving from one issue to another and flying by the seat of your pants half the time.
Q: Did you have advisors inside the government?
MR. TRAIN: At Interior, CEQ, and EPA, there were a fair number of associates who were important. I think one of the most important associations was with Al Alm. He first joined my staff when I was Undersecretary of the Interior, just before I went to CEQ. He became Chief of Staff for me at CEQ and then went to EPA as Assistant Administrator for Planning and Management. I would say he was by far my foremost personal advisor and associate during my time at EPA.
At the White House, I didn't have mentors, but John Ehrlichman was an important force during my time at Interior and at CEQ, before he ran into problems during the Watergate debacle. Mainly, he was an important force in gaining the President's attention to environmental matters. Although John has come in for a lot of criticism, give him credit for that. He was extremely important to me when I was Undersecretary of the Interior. Thanks to him, we won some important environmental battles before the enactment of NEPA.
For example, we prevented the construction of a big new international airport in Dade County, Florida. It would have been as large as Miami Airport, but we determined it would have been destructive to the hydrology of South Florida, to the Everglades, and so forth. The White House came down on our side on that issue, against all of the development interests in the Department of Transportation. Credit for this basically goes to John Ehrlichman; his support was crucial. Later on, he helped with the Alaska Pipeline question. This issue was assigned to my office at Interior, and we had to grapple with it all through 1969, before there was any National Environmental Policy Act or any Environmental Impact Statement process. We had to put together all of our own procedures for dealing with a complex set of actions having substantial environmental impacts. Again, Ehrlichman was extremely supportive and helpful all through this debate.
Among people outside CEQ, I worked most closely with John Whittaker, Ehrlichman's Principal Deputy on the Domestic Council staff. He was my principal line of communication with the White House. I dealt with him on a daily basis, whereas I would deal with Ehrlichman - especially during the latter period - every couple of months. I communicated with the President perhaps twice a year. So, John Whittaker was an important force. By the time I went to EPA, I think he had become Undersecretary of the Interior, so our associations became less frequent.