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NFC: Fw: RiverCurrents for the Week of October 6, 2000



Title: RiverCurrents for the Week of October 6, 2000

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River News for the Week of October 6, 2000

SNAKE RIVER DAMS: Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA) this week agreed to remove a rider that he had attached to the Interior Department's appropriations bill that would have prohibited the government from even considering the removal of dams on the Snake River to save endangered salmon. Gorton decided to drop the rider after veto pressure from President Clinton. As reported by TomPaine.com (10/2), even some of those who agree that the dams should stay in place, also disagreed with the strategy of using a rider.

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MISSOURI RIVER: Missouri state farm groups and shippers this week initiated an ad campaign aimed at getting President Clinton to change his mind about vetoing a huge energy and water bill. The $23.6 billion spending bill would prohibit returning the Missouri River to a seasonal ebb and flow, a move favored by environmentalists and recreation activists, but opposed by commercial shipping interests downstream. As reports the AP (10/4), Clinton has vowed to veto the bill, wanting to ease controlled flows along the Missouri to protect endangered shorebirds and fish. Those in favor of the bill argue that controlled flows would result in flooding and end barge traffic along the 2,500-mile waterway. The Senate gave final approval to the bill earlier this week. American Rivers has applauded Vice President Al Gore for supporting the administration's plan to reform Missouri River dam operations to help recreation and river wildlife. "Vice President Gore is putting the real economic and environmental needs of the state of Missouri ahead of the political needs of the Missouri Farm Bureau," said Chad Smith, Director of American Rivers' Missouri River Field Office. (American Rivers press release 10/5).

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MISSISSIPPI RIVER: The US Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to delay its controversial seven-year study of major construction projects on the Mississippi River, reports the Washington Post (10/5). A recent independent review found that the study's forecasts were riddled with serious flaws and unrealistic assumptions, including relying on projections that were obsolete and inflated. Two North Dakota State University economists hired by the Corps conducted the independent review, which revealed that the agency had relied on 1993 projections of steadily increasing barge traffic to justify $1 billion lock expansions on the upper Mississippi. The two economists have said that the obsolete and inflated numbers used in the study "are even worse than the agency has acknowledged." The Corps has now requested a one-year delay from the secretary of the Army to "redo its economic, engineering and environmental analyses to reflect more realistic traffic forecasts."

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LOGGING: The California state Forestry Board this week rejected proposed rules that could have eased logging restrictions near streams and on hillsides. The proposed rules would have allowed timber interests and landowners to choose whether to use existing rules or new ones to obtain the necessary approvals to cut timber. As reports the San Jose Mercury News (10/5), "the new rules would have affected key aspects of logging, including how many trees must be left standing near streams, how much canopy must be retained overhead for shade and how close to streams loggers are allowed to cut." Rejection of the proposed rules by the Board leaves in place the temporary rules, opposed by the logging industry, for at least one more year. Neither environmentalists nor timber companies are happy with the decision, however. "Environmentalists want more waterway protections, while timber companies want to switch to a system that would let them set rules for each new timber harvest instead of adhering to statewide regulations," reports the News.

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STURGEON: The shortnose sturgeon, which spends nearly all of its life in East Coast rivers, is making a comeback in the Hudson River in New York. Driven nearly to extinction to meet caviar demands in the late 1800s, the fish is a "descendant of the ray-finned fish that achieved greatest abundance and diversity some 280 million to 345 million years ago," reports the Washington Post (10/2). The fish can take as much as a decade to reach spawning age, making a comeback difficult. Efforts by the fish to recover have also been hampered by pollution and dams that keep the fish from reaching its spawning areas.  The shortnose sturgeon was designated as endangered in 1967, under a precursor to the 1973 federal Endangered Species Act. A fishery biologist affiliated with Cornell University and the U.S. Geological Survey in Ithaca, N.Y., says that now, at least in the Hudson River, the numbers of one population of the fish are so high that "it may be time to look at whether it could be removed from the federal endangered species list, or perhaps be down-listed to threatened." Such a delisting would be the first of its kind for an endangered fish.

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PUYALLUP RIVER: For the first time in nearly a century, salmon will be able to reach the upper reaches of the Puyallup River in Washington State as a new $1 million fish ladder will allow them to bypass Electron Dam in the foothills of Mount Rainier. As reports the Seattle Times (10/2), the 290-foot-long concrete ladder will open 30 miles of upriver fish habitat. The project is a joint effort of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians and Puget Sound Energy. The utility runs the hydropower project and pays for salmon restoration, while the tribe oversees salmon recovery.  Total cost for the ladder, the ponds and the trap-and-haul operation will be about $2 million, with another $175,000 paid annually by the utility to nurture the new fish runs. The utility will also loose between $250,000 and $1 million a year, depending on water flow and power rates, due to its agreement to draw less water into its flume during low-flow months (between June and November).

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WACISSA RIVER: For the price of $16.3 million, the St. Joe Company, Florida's largest real estate company, has sold the state of Florida 8,867 acres along the Wacissa River in Jefferson County. The Nature Conservancy helped to purchase the tract of land, which will protect an additional 10 miles along the river. As reports the Florida Times (10/4), Preservation 2000 funding was used to make the acquisition that will protect the headwaters of the spring-fed Wacissa River. After 14 miles, the river joins the Aucilla River, which flows to the Gulf of Mexico. The land will continue to be managed as part of Aucilla Wildlife Management Area, which has leased the area from the company for years.

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COEUR d'ALENE RIVER: Six U.S. Geological Survey researchers have been attempting to locate and catch sculpin in the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River, "an ugly little bottom-feeder that acts like the couch potato of the mountain stream -- and does nothing for anglers except feed trout." Since the fish is a slow-moving bottom feeder, they are considered to be very vulnerable to mine waste, unlike migratory fish that can move on to escape pollution. Absence of the fish shows that there is something wrong with the fishery, which is less than a mile from the Bunker Hill Superfund site and is heavily contaminated with toxic metals from a century of mining and smelting in the Silver Valley. However, in other areas, the team was able to find cutthroat trout, rainbows, brookies, and mountain whitefish. As reports the Idaho Statesman (10/5), the USGS team is finishing up a three-year, $1.5 million regional effort to study mining and the way it influences water quality throughout the northern Rockies. By the end of 2001, a series of technical reports will be available outlining the team's findings on fish, algae and macroinvertebrates.

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MILL CREEK: The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency wants to designate 7.9 miles of the Mill Creek as a "modified warmwater habitat." Environmentalists oppose the move, saying that the far more stringent "warmwater habitat" status is needed to reclaim the river, now that sensitive species such as the black-crowned night heron and beavers are emerging. As reports the Cincinnati Post (10/4), "the modified warmwater habitat designation, which carries significantly lowered regulatory expectations for biological criteria, does not push far enough at a time local groups and governments are working together to reclaim the waterway." Ohio EPA spokeswoman Linda Oros says that her agency wants to be consistent in the way it classifies rivers across the state, and that the river would need to be much improved to meet the warmwater habitat standard. In fact, it now does not even meet "modified warmwater habitat" standards. Currently, the creek is designated as a "limited warmwater habitat," for which there are no water-quality standards.

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OREGON SALMON: Wild Chinook salmon will be harmed by current plans to expand Interstate 405, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service told the state Department of Transportation. Unless the Department of Transportation can show that the fish will be protected, the agency says the state should encourage mass transit rather than widening the highway by as much as six lanes, as currents plans call for.  State officials think they can design an expansion on the state's second-busiest freeway that won't hurt the fish.  But agency officials say that expanding the amount of pavement on which rain would fall would allow less water to be absorbed into soil where it could replenish the water table and area rivers, reports the AP (10/2). Oregon is currently conducting an 18-month, $6.5 million study of the I-405 corridor.

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COLUMBIA RIVER: The states of Oregon and Washington have said no to a "massive effort to deepen the 103-mile stretch of Columbia River between Portland and Astoria, citing serious concerns about the impact of sullied river water upon fish habitat." As reports the Oregonian (9/30), the decision by the states to deny water quality permits to the US Army Corps of Engineers comes just five weeks after the National Marine Fisheries Service revoked its approval of the project. Both groups fear the affect on endangered salmon and steelhead if three feet of rock, sand and mud are removed from the bottom of the Columbia River Estuary. The ports of Portland and Vancouver, Wash., among others, see the project as vital to maintaining a competitive edge in maritime commerce, and say that "this thing is not over."

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UMPQUA RIVER: PacifiCorp and state and federal agencies have agreed to extend talks over relicensing the eight hydropower dams on the North Umpqua River in Washington State, though five environmental groups might drop out of the talks. Negotiations about relicensing the hydroelectric project that affects salmon and steelhead began two years ago and will be extended until December 15.  The eight dams provide a half-million Oregonians with electricity. As reports the Seattle Post Intelligencer (10/5), environmental advocates want PacifiCorp to remove the Soda Springs dam, the farthest downstream of the string of dams. That would open up another eight miles on the river, allowing the fish to reach extra spawning habitat on the North Umpqua, as well as the tributary Fish Creek. PacifiCorp says the dam is necessary to make the project operate efficiently. After 18 months of negotiations, however, the environmental groups in the talks are not sure they want to continue. Soda Springs dam not only blocks fish, but violates federal water quality standards for acidity, dissolved oxygen and temperature.

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