[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
NFC: Fw: [currents] RiverCurrents for the Week of May 19, 2000
*************************
River News for the Week of May 19, 2000
HYDROPOWER: American Rivers, American Whitewater, and Trout Unlimited
this
week criticized industry efforts at rolling back environmental
protections
as the House Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power meets to mark up
"The
Hydroelectric Licensing Process Improvement Act" (H.R. 2335). Introduced
last year by Representative Edolphus Towns (D-NY), the bill would amend
the
Federal Power Act, which now gives federal agencies special authority to
establish minimum environmental standards when issuing licenses for
hydropower dams. Representative Town's bill would limit the abilities of
federal agencies to protect natural resources and burden the agencies
with
new process requirements. A companion bill S. 740, was introduced by
Senator
Larry Craig (R-ID) in March 1999. "This legislation is a wolf in sheep's
clothing and is simply designed to tie resource agencies in red tape and
unravel important environmental protections," said Andrew Fahlund, policy
director of hydropower programs for American Rivers. "There's no getting
around the fact that hydropower hurts rivers and native fish and
wildlife.
Hydropower is not the magic "clean" solution to our nation's energy
problems
that its supporters make it out to be." (American Rivers press 5/16)
* * *
HANFORD REACH: American Rivers is praising the efforts of Interior
Secretary
Bruce Babbitt to permanently protect critical salmon habitat as he
traveled
this week to the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River in eastern
Washington
on a fact-finding mission to assess the best option for permanent federal
protection for the river and adjacent lands. Local support for federal
stewardship of the Hanford Reach has been increasing of the past five
years
to an overwhelming majority. Protection of the Reach would preserve the
river in its free-flowing state, and stop efforts to break up the lands
along its banks for other uses. The 51-mile Hanford Reach is the last
non-tidal, free flowing portion of the nation's third longest river.
Flowing
through the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the Hanford Reach has been
isolated
and able to support a rare shrub-steppe ecosystem along its banks. In
addition, the Hanford Reach has national significance as the only section
of
the Columbia River that sustains reliably harvestable runs of fall
chinook
salmon. In 1998, American Rivers named the Hanford Reach the nation's
most
endangered river. (American Rivers press 5/16)
* * *
REFORM OF THE CORPS: Conservation groups this week urged Congress to
dramatically reform the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by requiring
independent review, modern estimates of benefits and costs, and adequate
mitigation for Corps levees and dams that harm rivers and wildlife. A
coalition of national conservation groups also opposed an appropriations
rider designed to block reforms and urged the Congress to restore
civilian
control to the Corps, during testimony before the Senate Committee on
Environment and Public Works's Subcommittee on Transportation and
Infrastructure. Scott Faber of American Rivers testified on behalf of
American Rivers, Coast Alliance, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund,
Environmental Defense, Friends of the Earth, Mississippi River Basin
Alliance and the Sierra Club. The absence of civilian oversight has
allowed
Corps planners to bend the rules of project planning to justify
economically
questionable projects, including new locks for the Mississippi and
Illinois
Rivers, says Faber. To obain a copy of his testimony and for more
information about Corps reform, see the American Rivers website at
http://www.amrivers.org/corpsreform.html. (American Rivers press 5/16)
In a related story, seven New Mexico conservation groups are urging
Senator
Pete Domenici to withdraw a rider that would block efforts to reform the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Domenici (R-NM) is leading efforts to
include
a rider that would prevent the Clinton Administration from restoring
civilian control to the military agency, which constructs levees and
dams.
The rider is included in the Senate's Agriculture Appropriations Bill.
"The
absence of civilian oversight has permitted some Corps officials--
anxious
to increase agency spending by 50 percent-- to approve projects with few
benefits and unacceptably high environmental costs," the groups wrote in
their letter to Domenici. The rider "ensures that Corps officials will
not
be held accountable to the electorate." Amigos Bravos, Defenders of
Wildlife, Forest Guardians, Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Basin Coalition, Rio
Grande
Restoration, Southwest Environmental Center, and the Texas Center for
Policy
Studies signed the letter. Because Corps benefit-costs studies are often
inaccurate, project benefits should be twice as great as project costs,
Faber said. "Many projects are built to serve the needs of a handful of
special interests, and the Corps frequently treats such local
cost-sharing
partners-- rather than the American people-- as their clients," he said.
(American Rivers press 5/17)
* * *
FAWN RIVER: Lawsuits resulting from a large discharge of sediment-laden
water in May of 1998 into the Fawn River from a pond housing an Indiana
Department of Natural Resources fish hatchery are seeking more than $38
million in penalties. Plaintiffs in the suit are residents living
downstream
from the hatchery in Indiana. As reports the Indianapolis Star (5/17),
the
hatchery says the incident was an accident that happened during
maintenance
work at the hatchery, though the plaintiffs claim it was a deliberate
attempt to remove sediment from the hatchery. Professors from the Indiana
University School of Public and Environmental Affairs in Bloomington say
the
"catastrophic release of about 100,000 cubic yards of mud from the fish
hatchery has ecologically crippled a five-mile segment of one of
Indiana's
cleanest rivers."
* * *
KENTUCKY RIVER: A massive fish kill in an eight-mile stretch of the
Kentucky
River is the result of a fire at a warehouse at the Wild Turkey
Distillery.
As reports the AP (5/15), "a plume of contamination permeated the river
from
surface to bottom." The bourbon itself is not toxic to the fish, but
apparently something else in the water such as bacteria was fed by the
alcohol and depleted the water's oxygen, suffocating the fish.
* * *
CHICAGO RIVER: Fish warnings are being issued for the first time against
consuming too many bass and sunfish from the Chicago River and Calumet
River
systems. Ironically, that's good news since before now, the urban
waterways
were too polluted to sustain enough bass or sunfish to worry about,
reports
the Chicago Sun Times (5/18). Carp were the only fish commonly caught in
the
rivers. River cleanup programs have now restored the rivers enough to
support a number of sport fish. However, carp over a foot long from
either
river shouldn't be eaten, and this year black bass, yellow bass and
sunfish
caught in the Calumet and Little Calumet have been added to the warnings,
as
well as largemouth bass and sunfish caught in the Chicago River and its
branches. Women of childbearing age and children under age 6 must be most
careful to observe the warnings.
* * *
EVERGLADES: $2 billions has been set aside to help restore the Everglades
through a law signed this week by Gov. Jeb Bush. Bush has also called on
Congress to match the commitment. As reports the AP (5/17), "the bill
earmarks $200 million a year over the next 10 years to restore a more
natural flow of water through the Everglades and lower the amount of
fertilizer-saturated water flowing into Lake Okeechobee and eventually
into
Florida Bay, at the southern tip of the Florida peninsula."
* * *
YELLOWSTONE RIVER: Chief U.S. District Judge Jack Shanstrom has ruled
that
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated federal environmental law in
issuing permits for bank stabilization projects along the Yellowstone
River
in Montana, reports the Billings Gazette (5/16). According to the ruling,
the Corps "failed to adequately consider the cumulative effects of
individual projects when granting 14 permits issued in 1996 and 1997."
The
agency has been ordered to review its findings that the projects did not
significantly impact river health and to evaluate whether environmental
impact statements should be carried out on each of the projects.
* * *
WATAUGA RIVER: 100,000 trout fingerlings have been released into the
Watauga
River in Tennessee, nearly three months after a North American
Corporation
factory fire led to a massive fish kill. As reports the Tennessean
(5/18),
recent tests show that water quality has just about returned to normal,
though it will be seven to ten years before the trout population is fully
restored. A 10-mile section of the river was affected by the fire,
killing
tens of thousands of fish.
* * *
ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: An independent group of economists have
determined
that the research done by the Army Corps of Engineers to justify the
plans
by the agency to expand locks and dams on the Mississippi River is too
flawed to support the $1 billion project, reports the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch (5/18). The Corps has been seeking to ease traffic jams on
the
Mississippi to help the river industry, and has therefore been evaluating
transportation costs, demand for grain products and the potential export
market. However, economists this week said that the studies by the agency
have overlooked available data, made methodological errors, and used
outdated information. According to economist Charles Leven, professor
emeritus of economics at Washington University, "What I saw doesn't
justify
expanding one lock."
In a related story, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined
that
federal efforts to maintain a barge channel on the Mississippi River are
threatening the survival of the endangered pallid sturgeon and Higgins'
eye
pearly mussel -- two endangered species - with serious economic and
environmental implications of what is often considered America's most
important river. As reports the Washington Post (5/18), the locks, dams,
dikes and dredges on the upper Mississippi Army belonging to the Corps of
Engineers keep the river deep and straight, stir up sediment and tear up
fish, and cause additional damage by blocking fish migrations, all to the
detriment of fish and other wildlife.
* * *
POTOMAC RIVER: Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening said he will veto a
bill that would have blocked efforts by Virginia water authorities to
extend
an intake pipe into the center of the Potomac River and will instead sign
a
competing measure that will allow the pipe to be built upon review by the
Maryland Department of the Environment. As reports the Washington Post
(5/18), Maryland owns the entire Potomac under a 1632 land grant by King
Charles I of England. Virginia argues that an 1877 interstate compact
allows
it to use the river and to build improvements in it. Virginia has been
trying since 1996 to replace its shoreline pipe with a mid-river pipe
that
would provide its 1.2 million customers across Northern Virginia with a
better source of water.
==================
To add yourself to American Rivers listserves for River Policy Updates,
Corps Reform, Snake River alerts, and action alerts on other issues,
please
visit <a href=http://www.actionnetwork.org/home.tcl?domain=AMRIVERS> and
register. Thank you for your interest in rivers!
================================
For more news, please visit us at www.amrivers.org