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NFC: Fw: RiverCurrents for the Week of July 21, 2000
River News for the Week of July 21, 2000
CLEAN WATER: This week Congressman Marion Berry introduced legislation
that would nullify recently authorized Environmental Protection Agency
rules for reducing water pollution, reports the Arkansas Democrat Gazette
(7/20). "With this resolution, I intend to reassert the will of the
Congress and force the EPA to consider the perspective of America's
farmers, foresters and landowners," said Berry, a Democrat from Arkansas.
Claiming that he has bipartisan support for the resolution, Berry
introduced legislation last Tuesday that would counter the move by the
EPA to set water pollution limits on waterways threatened by pollution.
The regulations target nonpoint source pollution including runoff from
city streets, logging sites, and chemically treated lawns and farmland.
Agriculture and timber groups oppose the rules, saying that they would
cost too much and restrict state authority to control water pollution
through voluntary measures.
* * *
ARMY CORPS REFORM: Environmental and taxpayer groups this week praised
Representatives Ron Kind (D- WI), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Earl
Blumenauer (D-OR) for introducing the Army Corps Reform Act of 2000,
which would make long-awaited reforms to the Army Corps of Engineers. Key
reforms in the bill include a requirement for independent, outside expert
review of all large or controversial projects, increased stakeholder
involvement, making environmental protection an equal purpose of future
Corps projects, and requiring adequate mitigation for Corps levees and
dams that harm rivers and wildlife. Conservation and taxpayer groups hope
that many of the reforms proposed in the Army Corps Reform Act of 2000
will be included in the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2000,
the omnibus bill that authorizes new Corps projects and sets Corps
policy. The Senate failed to include reforms in its committee version of
WRDA and the House committee is expected to mark up their version next
week. Highlighting the need for reforms are several Corps projects that
have come under scrutiny, including lock expansion, channel and harbor
deepening, and brownfield remediation projects, in recent months. In
particular, top Corps officials allegedly developed a "secret plan" to
expand the agency's budget by 50 percent. More information is available
at www.americanrivers.org. (American Rivers press release 7/18)
* * *
MISSOURI RIVER: Last week the regional director in Denver of the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife issued a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers
concerning the Missouri River, saying that "Fish and Wildlife wants a
spring pulse, or rise in the river's flow, starting next year at Gavins
Point Dam on the South Dakota-Nebraska border, the farthest downstream of
the Missouri's six major dams." The agency also requested a lower
midsummer flow below the dam. The Corps manages the Missouri's dams and
channels for flood control, recreation, hydro power, agriculture and
navigation. Some farmers and barge operators are angry at the move,
saying the changes could ruin their livelihood, and that the agency is
"overstepping its authority and threatening years of regional effort
toward a compromise that would help wildlife without harming human uses
on the 2,341-mile stream." (USA Today 7/19). If enacted, the flow
measures would mimic the way the Missouri flowed before being dammed and
channeled, providing a better feeding habitat for birds and wildlife. Two
Missouri Senators have responded in anger to the letter, saying that the
agency is "hijacking" the Corps management role.
* * *
SNAKE RIVER DAMS: The Clinton Administration has announced its decision
to postpone by at least five years a plan that could lead to the
breaching of the four federally owned dams on the Lower Snake River. As
reports the New York Times (7/19), the White House is instead proposing a
number of smaller steps it hopes will assist salmon recovery. The new
steps will be made public next week, and include plans such as "placing
logs along riverbeds to provide the fish with an illusion of home,"
improving water flows, continuing harvest restrictions and immediately
starting engineering studies on dam breaching. As reports the Washington
Post (7/20), the "administration also left open the possibility of
breaching the dams later, dismaying farmers and businesses that depend on
the dams for power." Vice President Gore has issued a statement formally
endorsing the plan, saying it "provides a solid foundation for restoring
the salmon while strengthening the economy of the Pacific Northwest."
George W. Bush has already made public his opposition to breaching the
dams. As reports USA Today, "the administration decision is a major blow
to environmentalists, who have in the past two years escalated their
campaign to remove the dams." Samuel N. Penney of the Nez Perce Tribe
says the decision probably means extinction for some runs of salmon and
steelhead. (Oregonian 7/19).
As reports American Rivers (7/21), the campaign to save the endangered
salmon of the Pacific Northwest has reached a critical point. The
Administration in the coming weeks is scheduled to release details of its
plan to recover the endangered salmon and steelhead that spawn in the
Snake River, in a draft "Biological Opinion." Scientists and government
experts who have studied the issue say that four dams on the lower Snake
River in Washington state must be removed to save the salmon from
extinction.
* * *
MINING: The Underwood administration in West Virginia has announced its
plans to completely rewrite the stream buffer zone rule that Chief U.S.
District Judge Charles H. Haden II used to limit mountaintop removal
mining, eliminating the detailed stream protections Haden outlined. As
reports the Charleston Gazette (7/20), EPA Director Castle is proposing
to "remove from the state's rule six of seven specific environmental
protections that must be met before coal companies can be exempted from
the buffer zone rule." The change is meant to make the buffer zone more
consistent with the federal rule.
* * *
ARNELL CREEK: Approximately 500,000 menhaden have been found dead in
Arnell Creek located near the mouth of Love Creek in Delaware. The
finding follows a report issued by the DNREC earlier this week showing
that 70 percent of the menhaden caught on Indian River were marked with
lesions, reports the Delaware State News (7/20). Last week, an additional
50,000 menhaden were found dead in Pepper Creek, an Indian River
tributary. Authorities believe the fish kill is likely due to inadequate
supplies of dissolved oxygen in the water.
* * *
DAMS: The Pacific Gas and Electric Company is considering selling every
piece of its system of 174 dams, 99 reservoirs, 68 power plants, 380
miles of artificial waterways and hundreds of thousands of acres of land
- valued at about $3 billion. The move would be the biggest of its kind,
though some are concerned about how the need for providing electrical
power would be balanced against the need to protect the environment. As
reports the New York Times (7/19), California is one of the states
taking a lead in deregulating utilities, but now is faced with the issue
of keeping "a hand in the fate of one of the largest hydroelectric
systems in the world after it has been broken into pieces." Environmental
Defense and the California Hydropower Reform Coalition recently issued a
report saying that the dams threaten salmon populations, and foster algae
and bacteria growth. Further, few of the company dams meet water quality
standards. New owners could make the situation even worse by manipulating
water flows to take advantage of energy prices. PG&E says the criticism
is unfair, and that the company has long been a good environmental
steward. However, if the sale is done right, conservationists see a
unique opportunity to restore rivers choked by a century of dam
development.
* * *
OCKLAWAHA RIVER: The Ocklawaha River in Florida will likely benefit from
a "historic" decision that would lead to its recovery through the removal
of the Kirkpatrick Dam in the Rodman Reservoir. Florida Governor Jeb Bush
has announced his decision to support removal of the dam to restore the
river, though his support might not be enough, since in the past
opposition to the dam was defeated. Bush's decision comes just as the
state Department of Environmental Protection is putting together the
paperwork to submit to the U.S. Forest Service for the three-decade-old
dam. For the last 18 months, Bush has refused to take a stand on the
removal of the dam. But according to the Gainesville Sun (7/14), he now
feels that restoring the Ocklawaha is "the next step in a longer-term
restoration legacy." The forest service has the power to condemn the land
and remove the dam.
* * *
DELAWARE RIVER: The Delaware Senate Appropriations Committee's Energy and
Water Development Subcommittee rejected Delaware's request to halt a
planned deepening of the Delaware River. As reports USA Today (7/18), the
move presents another "blow to the state's efforts to prevent the Army
Corps of Engineers from beginning the controversial 103-mile, $311
million project later this year." The state plans to go to court, if
necessary, saying the project to deepen the river from 40 feet to 45 feet
is a waste of money, will benefit few if any ports and refineries along
the river, and will damage the environment. Also of concern is whether
the project will stir up toxins at the bottom of the river, and where the
dredged soil will be placed. The Corps hopes the project will allow
larger ships to reach ports and refineries along the river, bringing in
more cargo and creating more jobs. Taxpayers for Common Sense and the
National Wildlife Federation have called the project "one of the most
wasteful and environmentally harmful Army Corps projects in the country."
* * *
STURGEON: This week five hundred, footlong yearling sturgeon were
released into the French Broad River in Tennessee in an effort to
reintroduce the once-native fish into the Tennessee River system. The
sturgeon were raised by the Tennessee Aquarium's hatchery from eggs
brought from Wisconsin, and were placed in the river through a
multiagency effort including the TVA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
the TWRA, the Tennessee Aquarium and the World Wildlife Fund. The fish
were released below the Tennessee Valley Authority's Douglas Dam 50 miles
upstream of Knoxville and an entry point into the 360-mile Tennessee
River system, reports the Tennessean (7/21).
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Robert Rice
Save those Fishes
Join the Native Fish Conservancy
http://www.nativefish.org