Missouri River tops list once again
Washington, D.C., April 9, 2002 -- The Corps of Engineers' operations of a huge dam and reservoir system have once again put the Missouri River at the top of the annual America's Most Endangered Rivers list.
In this report, American Rivers cites these dams and other Corps water projects as a threat to rivers nationwide, and calls on Congress to pass legislation to stop wasteful and destructive practices.
The Corps' plans for large construction projects made headlines again last month when President Bush fired the head of the agency, Michael Parker, after just six months on the job. Parker earned the President's wrath by openly inviting Congress to pile pork onto the Corps' budget after the White House proposed a modest 10% cut for the agency.
"The Corps of Engineers' water projects have put more than 30 rivers on our endangered rivers list since 1986, sometimes more than once," said Rebecca R. Wodder, president of American Rivers. "It's time to get the Corps off its path of destruction and onto a new path of stewardship of our natural resources."
Each year since 1986, American Rivers has released the America's Most Endangered Rivers report to highlight rivers where imminent harm can be avoided or where ongoing destruction can be stopped. In the spirit of the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list, the report identifies dangers to rivers that can be avoided if action is taken. It is not a list of the nation's most chronically polluted rivers. Four of the rivers were placed on this year's list because of ongoing or proposed Corps of Engineers water projects.
* The health of the Missouri River, this year's #1 most endangered river, is in sharp decline due to the operation of Corps dams and reservoirs.
* The Big Sunflower River in Mississippi, #2, is threatened by a pair of Corps projects that would scour the heart out of the river and drain its surrounding wetlands.
* The fish and wildlife paradise of the White River in Arkansas, #5, is threatened by the Corps' plans to build an enormous irrigation project and hundreds of navigation structures.
* The Apalachicola River in Florida, #11, is being systemically destroyed by the Corps' futile efforts to maintain a shipping channel for commercial barges that is barely used.
"Far too often, the Corps builds projects to serve special interests instead of the public interest," Wodder said. "Once built, the operation of many Corps projects require continued infusions of tax dollars, and this dependence is nearly impossible to break no matter how much harm or how few benefits are being generated from projects dreamed up decades ago."
The environmental consequences of the Corps' activities along America's rivers are profound. The agency has trapped rivers behind hundreds of locks and dams. It has cut off rivers from their floodplains with 8,500 miles of levees. It has gouged out 11,000 miles of navigation channels and constricted rivers with thousands of "wing dikes" and other structures. This transformation is a reason why America's freshwater fish and wildlife is disappearing five times faster than species that live on land.
The cost to the taxpayer and to the economy can be equally substantial. One watchdog organization, Taxpayers for Common Sense, estimates that cutting just the 25 worst projects from the Corps' budget could save $6 billion in the next several years. On the Missouri River, dam operations that make the $7 million barge industry possible prevent the almost $90 million recreation and tourism industry from reaching its potential. On the Apalachicola and its tributaries, the Corps spends more than twice as much to maintain the shipping channel as the barges return to the economy.
Growing Consensus for Reform
A growing bipartisan coalition of senators and congressmen is pushing for fundamental reforms that could save the public billions of tax dollars and spare countless rivers across the country from further damage. Key provisions in a number of the bills that have been introduced include independent peer review of the economic viability and ecological soundness of new projects, stricter requirements for replacing habitat damaged by project construction, and new procedures for determining the economic benefits of proposed projects.
"At a time when many worthwhile federal programs are tightening their belts, the Corps should not be allowed to continue with business as usual," Wodder said.
America's Most Endangered Rivers 2002 Summary
1) Missouri River (Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri)
Threat: Army Corps dam operations
On the eve of the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark's historic exploration of the Missouri River, visitors experience just a fraction of its former ecological and historical glory, thanks to a management scheme that prioritizes a handful of barges over the river's health and its growing recreation and tourist industry. In the next few months, the Corps of Engineers must resist pressure to evade its Endangered Species Act responsibilities and instead modernize its dam operations to restore more natural seasonal water levels and reverse the river's decline -- a step that would bring new prosperity to communities along America's longest river and prevent the extinction of several species first documented by Lewis and Clark.
2) Big Sunflower River (Mississippi)
Threat: Army Corps flood control projects
Unless the public strongly speaks out and environmental regulators vigorously exercise their legal authority, construction crews working for the Corps of Engineers will soon begin work on a pair of projects that will scrape the heart out of Mississippi's Big Sunflower River and drain and damage over 200,000 acres of its surrounding wetlands. The Corps is proposing to spend more than 250 million taxpayer dollars on these boondoggles that will help large landowners increase production of surplus crops on marginal agricultural lands.
3) Klamath River (California, Oregon)
Threat: Water supply and quality
In the drought-prone headwaters of the Klamath River, the Bureau of Reclamation is contesting its environmental responsibilities and attempting to maximize irrigation deliveries even though the diversions and polluted agricultural runoff is causing the river's ecosystem to collapse. Salmon populations have dropped to less than 8% of their historic averages, and unless Congress acts to reduce irrigation and restore wetlands, the fisheries will continue to dwindle - threatening the livelihoods of commercial fishermen and local communities, as well as the treaty rights of several Indian tribes.
4) Kansas River (Kansas)
Threat: Non-source pollution
Thirty years after the Clean Water Act became law, the state of Kansas has given up its effort to clean up the agricultural runoff polluting its namesake river - passing a law intended to strip away the Act's water quality standard protections from nearly all its waters. Unless the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asserts its authority and rejects the state's attempt to walk away from its environmental and public health responsibilities, agricultural lobbyists across the country will seek to copy the state's example - and the Kansas River will continue to fester under a smothering load of livestock manure.
5) White River (Arkansas)
Threat: Army Corps navigation project
The Corps of Engineers has started work on an enormous irrigation project that will suck more than 100 billion gallons of water from the White River each year, and is also proposing to construct hundreds of wing dikes along 250 miles of the lower river, to improve navigation for a handful of commercial barges. Unless the public and elected representatives act to stop these projects, one of the ecologically richest areas in the lower 48 states will become just another over-engineered barge channel and overtaxed source of irrigation water.
6) Powder River (Wyoming)
Threat: Coal bed methane
The burgeoning coal bed methane (CBM) industry in the Powder River basin creates an unusual threat for a Western river: too much low-quality water that enters the river at the wrong time of year. Federal and state agencies are making important decisions this year that will set critical guidelines for the CBM industry in the Powder River basin in Wyoming and Montana. With at least 51,000 methane gas wells anticipated by 2010, public officials must ensure that CBM development proceeds responsibly and that its byproduct water is properly managed to protect the Powder River and its tributaries.
7) Altamaha River (Georgia)
Threat: Water withdrawal
With projected population growth topping 300% for some communities in coming years, Metro Atlanta's seemingly insatiable demand for services such as drinking water and electricity threatens to overwhelm the Altamaha River. Unless the state's political leaders begin a comprehensive and inclusive effort to minimize the collective consequences of a number of reservoir and power plant proposals, one of the healthiest rivers on the eastern seaboard faces a future of perpetual drought.
8) Allagash Wilderness Waterway (Maine)
Threat: Wild and Scenic violations
Once the crown jewel of the nation's Wild and Scenic Rivers System, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway has lost much of its primitive character to decades of neglectful management. Some Maine legislators have introduced an unprecedented proposal to strip away the protections that federal wild and scenic river designation affords. Unless the state renews its commitment to preserve the river as a vestige of primitive America, the public will lose the best opportunity for a true wilderness experience in the crowded Northeast, and the nation's legal framework for protecting its most special rivers will be seriously compromised.
9) Canning River (Alaska)
Threat: Oil and gas development
Alaska's Canning River marks the western border of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Arctic Refuge). Should the U.S. Senate follow the House of Representatives and vote to allow oil and gas exploration and drilling in the refuge, the Canning River would be the first to feel the consequences -- the industry would pump millions of gallons of water from lakes in its delta, dig huge gravel mines in its floodplainbed, and disturbchase the wildlife away from its banks- with the threat of a catastrophic oil spill looming in the background.
10) Guadalupe River (Texas)
Threat: Water withdrawal
As Texas continues its statewide water planning effort, the Guadalupe River and its tributaries are threatened by growing demand for their water. A conservation organization is seeking to preserve the ecological resources and rural economy the river sustains by securing water rights which it will leave in the river. If the state of Texas awards the remaining water rights to water developers instead, the river's water will be siphoned off and sold -- with profound consequences for the river and its estuary, which support thriving commercial and recreational fisheries, and draw thousands of tourists each year to see the magnificent whooping crane.
11) Apalachicola River (Florida)
Threat: Army Corps dredging
In a futile effort to maintain a commercial shipping channel that is barely used, the Corps of Engineers is steadily destroying Florida's Apalachicola River by scouring the river bottom, dumping the dredge material in sensitive habitat, and aggressively manipulating the flow. The Corps itself has conceded that its efforts are not "economically justified or environmentally defensible." Rather than pour more money into this wasteful project, Congress should de-authorize it altogether in the Water Resources Development Act of 2002.
