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River News for the Week of October 27, 2000
WORLD'S WATER: According to a report released by the World Resources Institute, "fresh water systems around the world are so environmentally degraded they are losing their ability to support human, animal and plant life." As reports the Environmental News Network, the report is part of a study to determine the effects human activity has on the world's ecosystems, and was released during the national meeting of the Society of Environmental Journalists. According to the report, four out of every 10 people live in river basins with water scarcity, and that at least 3.5 billion people will experience water shortages by 2025. 3.5 billion is roughly half of the world's population. Rapid population loss or extinction of many species will also result from the water scarcity.
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ILLINOIS RIVER: A "pared-down version of a multi-billion-dollar initiative aimed at restoring the Illinois River and its tributaries is winding its way through the congressional approval process," reports the Bloomington Pantagraph (10/25). This week the US House approved a measure that would dedicated $100 million over three years to the restoration of the Illinois River watershed, including the Fox, Sangamon and Des Plaines rivers. Originally, supporters of the "Illinois Rivers 2020" plan had sought $2.5 billion in federal funds over 20 years. The initiative now requires a final write-through by congressional negotiators.
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COEUR d'ALENE RIVER SYSTEM: Some creeks in the Coeur d'Alene River system are still so polluted that they are devoid of aquatic life, according to a report released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Coeur d'Alene Tribe and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Resulting from hundreds of mines dumping tailings straight into the water, dead zones have been found in more than 15,000 acres of the basin, containing lead levels lethal to waterfowl. The report is the culmination of seven years of data collection, and shows, among other things, that "more than 113 miles of surface water are contaminated by toxic metals including Lake Coeur d'Alene, which exceeds water quality standards when floods wash metals into the lake." Other findings show that trout populations have been reduced or eliminated by pollution in the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River and tributaries, and that Canyon and Ninemile creeks are nearly devoid of all fish below mining releases. Zinc levels are causing cutthroat trout and salmon to avoid the Coeur d'Alene River altogether. As reports the Spokesman Review (10/25), "state politicians are urging tribal and federal officials to accept a mining cleanup settlement of $250 million over 30 years." The Report of Injury Assessment and Injury Determination is available on the Internet at www.r1.fws.gov/ec/ Restoration.htm.
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SAN JUAN RIVER: Flows out of Navajo Dam into the San Juan River will be reduced by 100 cubic feet per second starting next week, reports the Albuquerque Journal (10/24). The decision by the Bureau of Reclamation to reduce the flow is meant to maintain flows in the critical habitat area for endangered fish such as the Colorado pikeminnow and razorback sucker.
MINING: The coal waste spill that occurred two weeks ago in Inez, Kentucky is being described as the worst environmental disaster to hit the region in more than a decade. 250 million gallons of coal wastes leaked into a honeycomb of abandoned underground mines, polluting 100 miles of Kentucky and West Virginia waterways. As reports ABCNEWS.com (10/23), experts have found heavy metals in the sludge that is polluting area waters, including mercury, lead, arsenic, copper and chromium. The spill came from a Martin County Coal Corp. waste containment pond that was built above an old mine. When the bottom gave away, the sludge dropped into the mine, entered nearby creeks, and then into the Big Sandy River and finally entered the Ohio River last Friday. The spill has killed all fish and river life in Wolf Creek and the upper portion of Coldwater Fork in Ohio, reports the Cincinnati Enquirer (10/23). The spill has triggered a federal review of 653 coal-waste dams across the country, and officials are still trying to decide how to prevent the sludge from contaminating additional waterways in the Southeast
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NW SALMON: The decision by the US Corps of Engineers and Fish and Wildlife Service to relocate 20,000 wild terns from Rice Island to the mouth of the Columbia river has saved approximately 4.4 million juvenile salmon this year. Juvenile salmon are more difficult for the Caspian terns to catch near the mouth of the river, dropping the terns total catch to approximately 7.3 million salmon this year. As reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (10/25), the terns were attracted to East Sand Island by passive measures such as a cleared, 4-acre patch of sand, tern decoys and tern call recordings. The agencies are now working to disperse the remaining terns to several sites around the Northwest so they aren't a burden to any single salmon run.
Also in the Northwest along the Puyallup River in Washington, a $1 million, 290 foot long concrete fish ladder has been installed in the upper reaches of the river to restore salmon and open up 30 river miles of fish habitat. As reports the Environmental News Network (10/16), the ladder was installed 41 miles upriver from Commencement Bay as a joint project between the Puyallup Indian tribe and Puget Sound Energy. The ladder was tested earlier this week, allowing several hundred coho salmon that had gathered below a diversion dam to migrate up the river.
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DAM REMOVAL: Savage Rapids Dam is one step closer to being removed from the Rogue River in Oregon thanks to a bill introduced in Congress to provide $22.2 million to remove the structure to help salmon restoration. The dam will be replaced with pumps to supply the Grants Pass Irrigation District with water. No action is expected on the bill this season before Congress adjourns, but supporters hope it will move quickly through the process next year. Jointly sponsored by Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden and Republican Sen. Gordon Smith, the bill would provide $13.5 million to remove the dam and install pumps to draw water from the river, as well as $3.7 million for electricity to run the pumps and $5 million to restore riparian habitat and build recreational facilities upstream, reports the Portland Oregonian (10/25). If the bill does pass, it will likely be 2004 or 2005 before pumps could be installed and the dam removed.
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EEL RIVER: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is postponing action on a plan to cut water exports from the Eel River to the Russian River in California until the National Marine Fisheries Service can complete a study to determine the impacts on salmon and steelhead. The Service has asked for three more months to finish the study, which was to be finalized this week. The commission is considering reducing by 15 percent the amount of Eel River water piped to the Russian River through PG&E's Potter Valley hydroelectric plant. As reports the Santa Rosa Press Democrat (10/26), "the diversion, about 52 billion gallons a year, accounts for most of the Russian River's dry-season flow." The Russian River provides a key source of water for farms and cities in Sonoma, Mendocino and Marin counties. Environmentalists say the Eel River cannot afford to send the amount of water to the Russian River that PG&E and Sonoma County seek. But Sonoma County officials say the federal plan does would cause water shortages in the Russian River system in dry years. Groups on both sides have asked the commission to re-examine the impacts of its proposal because they claim it was based on faulty data.
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MISSOURI RIVER: The three-man congressional delegation from South Dakota is split over the question of how the Missouri River dams should be managed. Democrat Senators Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson agree with the US Fish and Wildlife Service who have proposed that the Army Corps of Engineers release more water in the spring and reduce the flow in the summer, mimicking the river's natural flow before dams harnessed its waters. The goal of that proposal would be to help the river's endangered and threatened species, as well as the region's $85-million-per-year recreation industry. On the other hand, Republican Representative John R. Thune agrees with the hydropower industry that say that "unsteady river flows could result in lethal spring floods and kill the $7-million-per-year commercial barge industry in their states," reports USA Today (10/24).
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BRETT CREEK: The U.S. Forest Service wants to restore the watershed that flows into the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River by removing 19 miles of road and 42 stream crossing. As reports the Spokesman Review (10/26), the roads are impassable and overgrown, and at a cost of $100,000 to $200,000, the watershed could be restored for a variety of fish, especially the westslope cutthroat trout. The Coeur d'Alene River Ranger District is now accepting public comment on restoration work at Brett Creek.
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ENDANGERED SPECIES: A coalition of environmental groups has sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for not listing westslope cutthroat trout as a threatened species. As reports the Idaho Statesman (10/26), the Fish and Wildlife Service was petitioned in 1997 to list the native trout, and the plaintiffs now say the fish is disappearing from its historic range in the mountains of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. The agency decided in April that listing is not warranted since healthy populations of the fish are found in Idaho and Montana. However, according to Rob Ament of American Wildlands, "the populations the federal scientists insist are healthy face the continuing threat of hybridization with rainbow trout."
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GRAZING: The Anheuser-Busch company has agreed to remove hundreds of its cattle from some fragile Sierra Nevada meadows where their grazing endangers California's state fish, the Volcano Creek golden trout. The company made the decision to remove the cattle rather than face "boycotts, rising costs and a public relations mess." As reports the San Jose Mercury News (10/24), the grazed areas used by the company are known as the Whitney and Templeton allotments, and contain the last habitat for the fish in the South Fork of the Kern River - a wild and scenic river. A coalition of environmental groups had been pressuring the company and the Forest Service to remove the cattle, arguing that "U.S. taxpayers are subsidizing the damaging of some of the most scenic public land in the West by a corporation." Grazing endangers the fish, since the cattle eat vegetation and trample streams, driving away the insects the fish eat.
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EVERGLADES: This week a number of environmental groups urged the Republican leadership "not to hold passage of the Everglades restoration plan hostage to an agreement to pass a costly and environmentally destructive water projects bill." As reports US Newswire (10/25), "Senate leaders have told Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) they will not permit approval of the Everglades restoration bill unless he also agrees to support a water projects bill filled with new subsidies and questionable projects Smith opposes." The water projects bill at issue is the $6 billion Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) passed last Friday by the House of Representatives, that contains a number of new dredging, flood control and "infrastructure" projects that have not been subject to environmental and economic review. Smith has rejected many of these questionable projects during negotiations with House members, and this new pressure is an "effort to force Senator Smith, who has championed the Everglades bill, to agree to a water projects bill that violates established procedures for approving new projects," according to conservation groups. The conservation groups include American Rivers, Coast Alliance, Defenders of Wildlife, Environmental Defense, Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club and the National Wildlife Federation.
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