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NFC: Fw: RiverCurrents: February 8, 2002
Robert Rice
NFC president
www.nativefish.org
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: American Rivers <action at action_amrivers.org>
To: robertrice at juno_com
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2002 14:10:49 -0800 (PST)
Subject: RiverCurrents: February 8, 2002
Message-ID: <3709218.1013206249125.JavaMail.IWAM_EUG-APP01@eug-app01>
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AOL KEYWORD: American Rivers
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In this issue...
FEATURE STORY
* FISH Act would protect rivers
* Why hydropower isn't "green"
NEWS FROM YOUR REGION
* Mid-Atlantic: Residents plan suit over polluted drinking water
* Southeast: Enron and the Everglades
* Great Lakes: Mississippi River National Center to open
* Midwest: New rules would protect Illinois rivers
* Rockies: Agreement reached in logging dispute
* Southwest: Groups sue Utah forests to protect rivers
* Northwest: Condit Dam removal gets support
HOW YOU CAN HELP
* Cast your vote for "an energy bill we can live, breathe, and swim
with"
* At-home tip: how is your thermostat set?
JOIN US!
* How you can join American Rivers
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FEATURE STORY
FISH Act would protect rivers
Representatives John Dingell (D-MI) and Edward Markey (D-MA) this
week announced a bill that would reform hydropower regulations and
ensure a better balance between protecting the environment and
generating electricity on hundreds of rivers across the country.
Members of the Hydropower Reform Coalition urged swift action on the
Federal Investment in Sustainable Hydropower Act (FISH Act), which
would curb abuse of regulations that allow utilities to put off
upgrading equipment or adopting new operations that would protect
fish and wildlife, water quality, tribal interests, and riverfront
communities.
Get the full story here:
<http://www.amrivers.org/pressrelease/hydro020702.htm>
Plus...
Why hydropower isn't "green" - get the truth on dams, rivers, and
energy production:
<http://www.amrivers.org/mostendangered/riversandenergy.htm>
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YOUR REGIONAL NEWS
1) MID-ATLANTIC
Camden residents plan suit over polluted drinking water
Camden, New Jersey residents may file a lawsuit against city
officials and the Pennsauken Sanitary Landfill. Residents say their
drinking water came from a contaminated well field in Pennsauken that
is now a federal Superfund site.
"For a quarter-century, large portions of the city of Camden received
tainted water...with the knowledge of many agencies and entities,"
Keith Walker, a former Camden mayoral candidate who has been
organizing public meetings on the issue, told the Philadelphia
Inquirer (02-05-02). "A lot of citizens are aghast."
The Inquirer reports that the six wells, "contaminated with chemicals
and heavy metals known to cause cancer and other health problems,
served 50,000 people who lived south and west of the Cooper River in
Camden. They were closed, one by one, from the early 1970s to 1998,
when the wells were declared a Superfund site."
An attorney for the landfill, said that any well contamination
occurred before the township or the county owned the landfill, and
that private industry should be held responsible.
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2) SOUTHEAST
Enron and the Everglades
In 1999, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush met with an Enron Corp. subsidiary,
Azurix, to discuss the possibility of letting the company help pay
for the ambitious $7.8 billion Everglades restoration project -- In
return, Azurix would be allowed to sell Everglades water.
But as the Washington Post reports (02-08-02), "while Azurix's well-
connected officials did get a meeting with the governor and his
aides, their bid to start privatizing Florida's most precious
resource went nowhere...Water still belongs to the public here."
"Boy, that was a near-disaster," Fred Rapach, a top water official in
Palm Beach County, told the Post. "Azurix had the ear of everyone in
the state, from the governor on down. Whew."
"We almost sold out Florida's water to a company that was falling
apart," said Nancy Brown, president of the Florida League of
Conservation Voters. "Jeb is lucky we didn't, because he was totally
behind it."
But Bush spokeswoman Katie Baur told the Post that while the Governor
was =91intrigued,' he was not behind the idea.
The state must still come up with its $3.9 billion share for the
Everglades restoration project that will restore more natural water
flows and help 68 endangered species.
3) GREAT LAKES
Progress for Mississippi River National Center
Saint Paul, Minnesota will become the site for the long-planned
Mississippi River National Center.
The center will serve as the National Park Service's visitor facility
for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area and will
provide visitors with an extensive array of information including
brochures, books, maps, and exhibits, as well as electronic
technology. Rangers will be available to connect visitors with
Mississippi River parks and other sites.
The McKnight Foundation donated $500,000 to make the center, located
within the Science Museum of Minnesota, a reality. The center,
expected to open in 2003, will be open to the public free of charge.
The MNRRA became part of the National Park System in 1988. The 72-
mile stretch of river begins at the Mississippi's confluence with the
Crow River near the cities of Dayton and Ramsey, and stretches just
south of Hastings.
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PHOTO CONTEST
The Environmental Protection Agency's Wetlands Division is sponsoring
a wetland photography contest focusing on images that show the
functions and values of wetlands.
They are seeking high quality photographs of wetlands in different
regions of the United States and at different seasons of the year.
The deadline for submission is March 1, 2002.
For more information and details on how to submit your photographs
visit www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/photocontest.html or call 1-800-832-
7828.
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4) MIDWEST
New rules would protect Illinois rivers
The most pristine rivers and streams of Illinois may soon enjoy new
protections. As reports the Chicago Tribune, the state is considering
new rules that would protect "outstanding resource waters" from
pollution.
Forty-five rivers and streams in the state -- roughly 100 miles of
waters -- could one day qualify for the designation and benefit from
the new protections. These rivers and streams that maintain high
water quality and diversity of species include streams associated
with the Rock, Fox and Des Plaines Rivers; portions of the Kishwaukee
River; and Nippersink Creek in McHenry County.
The rules state how groups and individuals can nominate a river
for "outstanding resource water" status. After a river is
designated, "no discharges into it would be allowed except under rare
circumstances, and in those cases, only briefly, and only if they do
not harm the water."
In addition, the rules "would outline ways to increase protection for
waterways that aren't pristine and would include a provision
requiring, for the first time, that polluters consider ways to get
rid of treated wastewater other than dumping it into nearby streams"
(Chicago Tribune, 02-04-02).
Environmentalists say the changes are long overdue, "finally giving
teeth in Illinois to federal clean water standards that date to the
1970s."
The rules could be adopted by the state within the two months.
5) ROCKIES
Forest Service and environmentalists settle logging dispute
The United States Forest Service has agreed to significantly reduce
the size of a timber sale in Montana's Bitterroot National Forest
that burned in wildfires in 2000.
The decision caps a long series of negotiations. The Forest Service
originally wanted to allow logging on 41,000 acres, but this week's
agreement maintains that 14,000 acres will be logged.
Environmentalists fought the logging, saying it would "cause
widespread erosion and damage to streams that are home to the
federally protected bull trout. They said the sales were evidence of
the Bush administration's appeasement of industry with publicly owned
resources" (New York Times, 02-08-02).
Tim Preso, a lawyer for EarthJustice in Bozeman, who negotiated for
environmental groups, told the New York Times that the outcome should
show the Forest Service that "we will fight for every acre on these
wildlands."
In the agreement, most of the roadless land is protected from
logging. The agreement also removed areas that are important habitat
for bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout.
"It's kind of a mixed bag," said Larry Campbell, executive director
of the Friends of Bitterroot, "but overall I do feel pretty good."
6) SOUTHWEST
Groups sue Utah forests to protect streams
Environmental groups sued in Federal District Court last week,
accusing four national forests in Utah of violating the Wild and
Scenic Rivers Act (Greenwire, 02-05-02).
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Natural Resources Defense
Council, Redrock Forests, and Forest Guardians charge that Fishlake,
Dixie, Ashley and Manti-La Sal national forests never completed
required studies, or that the studies were inadequate.
The 1968 act is the strongest statutory tool for protecting natural
rivers. Dams are forbidden, inappropriate streamside development can
be limited and growth better managed, and essential natural values
are maintained.
The Forest Service is required by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and
National Forest Management Act to study rivers for possible inclusion
in the Wild and Scenic Rivers System, and to develop management plans
to protect river values along these corridors.
Among the lawsuit's allegations:
* Fishlake never conducted any eligibility studies on rivers within
its boundaries.
* Federal agencies have studied six rivers in Ashley; however, they
did not forward formal recommendations to Congress as the act
requires.
* Dixie only studied its rivers that lie within the Grand Staircase-
Escalante National Monument.
* Manti-La Sal prepared, but never finalized, a 2000 draft
eligibility determination report to investigate its rivers.
(Source: Greenwire)
"Incredibly, Utah is the spiritual birthplace of the act, yet some 30
years after its passage, Utah still has no designated wild and scenic
rivers," said Scott Cameron, clean stream coordinator for Forest
Guardians.
According to the National Park Service's Nationwide Rivers Inventory,
more than 60,000 miles of rivers in the U.S. qualify for inclusion in
the Wild and Scenic Rivers System. But today, little more than 11,000
miles enjoy such protection.
Read more about wild and scenic rivers:
http://www.amrivers.org/wildscenic/wildintro1.htm
7) NORTHWEST
Condit Dam removal wins early backing
Removal of the 89-year-old Condit Dam on the White Salmon River "got
a qualified thumbs-up from the nation's dam-licensing agency" last
week, reports The Columbian (01-31-02).
In 1999, Pacificorp proposed to breach Condit Dam rather than install
costly fish ladders. The plan enjoys support from fish and wildlife
agencies, environmentalists, and tribes.
The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission did not
recommend dam removal last week, but its draft environmental impact
statement said that Pacificorp's plan "would provide the best and
most cost-effective means" for removing the dam and the sediments
behind it while protecting the environment.
The 125-foot-tall dam would be the largest ever removed in the United
States.
American Rivers, a party to the settlement, welcomed the news.
"From American Rivers' perspective, that is a tremendous outcome for
us, at least at this point in the proceedings," American Rivers'
Katherine Ransel told The Columbian. "We didn't have any sense of how
FERC would react to any dam removal proposal. The staff is struggling
procedurally with these dam removals all over the country."
Dam removal would re-open as much as 30 miles of stream habitat above
the dam to salmon and steelhead.
Read more:
Removing dams that don't make sense -- a look at today's dam removal
movement
http://www.amrivers.org/damremovaltoolkit/damremovalmovement.htm
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HOW YOU CAN HELP
Cast your vote for "an energy bill we can live, breathe, and swim
with"
The Senate is poised to act on a national energy bill, and your
Senators need to hear that the public supports stronger environmental
protections at hydropower dams, not weaker standards proposed by some
utilities and their lobbyists.
Click here to take action-- we appreciate your help!
http://www.amrivers.org/takeaction/default.htm
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AT-HOME TIP: your home's thermostat
Saving energy helps the environment and saves you money. Make sure
to check your thermostats:
In the winter, the recommended daytime setting is 68 degrees, at
night it's 55 degrees. In summer, turn it to 78 degrees.
(Source: Seattle City Light)
For more energy saving tips, click here:
http://www.amrivers.org/mostendangered/20things.htm
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LOVE RIVERS? BECOME A MEMBER OF AMERICAN RIVERS TODAY!
Join online and you'll receive a handsome "rivers" decal, a
rivers calendar, and more:
Click here to join:
https://radlib.com/ar/
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ABOUT RIVERCURRENTS
RiverCurrents is a weekly summary of river news and information as
reported by media outlets across the country. The inclusion of a
story or point of view in RiverCurrents does not necessarily indicate
endorsement by American Rivers. Unless American Rivers' position is
clearly indicated, stories or points of view expressed in
RiverCurrents are solely those of the groups and individuals named
and not those of American Rivers.
If you have clarifications or corrections about a story in
RiverCurrents, please send them to asouers at amrivers_org.
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