DRINK MORE WATER!
We all know that water is important but did you know that 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (Likely applies to half world pop.) In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism as much as 3%. One glass of water shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a U-Washington medical study.
Lack of water is the No. 1 trigger of daytime fatigue. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease your back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.
Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer. Are you drinking the amount of water you should every day?
[This story was sent to me by a friend but without any references. If any of you know the source of this information, please share it with us.]
WATER QUANTITY/QUALITY WORKSHOP
On Feb. 14, at the Renaissance Hotel in Denver, Gov. Owens will convene a meeting of the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB), Water Quality Control Commission, Agriculture Commission, Wildlife Commission, Water Resources and Power Development Authority, Great Outdoors Colorado Board, Parks Board and Groundwater Commission. Each of the agencies will prepare a paper identifying current challenges and issues faced by the agency. The intent of the workshop is to improve opportunities for coordination and cooperation among the agencies, but no major crosscutting issues are expected to be addressed or resolved.
PARK SERVICE FILES TO QUANTIFY RIGHTS FOR THE BLACK CANYON
On Jan. 18, 2001, in Colorado Water Court, the Justice Department, on behalf of the Park Service, filed a variable claim of water for the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The right has a priority date of 1933.
The filing identifies a different amount for normal, dry and wet years.
It also specifies when and how that water should be delivered to the Canyon from the Aspinall Unit. At the same time as the filing, the Justice Dept. asked the court for a stay of litigation. This will give Justice and Park Service an opportunity to negotiate with all concerned parties in the hope that there can be a settlement without having to go to trial. Rod Kuharich, the new Director of the CWCB, has stated he does not want this right to interfere with power production. Since the Park Service is asking for peak spring flows that will require spills at Crystal Dam (bypassing power production), this issue will not easily be resolved.
COLORADO WATERSHED ASSEMBLY MEETS
At a second organizational meeting of the Colorado Watershed Assembly, participants discussed and came to consensus on governance, holding an annual conference, creating and maintaining a website to disseminate information of interest to all watershed groups and setting up subcommittees to accomplish the above.
It was also decided to have the federal and state agencies form a working group to help with exchange of information and develop coordinated approaches to their participation with watershed groups.
September 7-8 is set for this year’s Assembly conference.
SNOWPACK CONDITIONS
Snowpack in Colorado is below average as of Feb.1. The Gunnison Basin is 78% of average, Upper Colorado is 80%, S.Platte is 67%, Laramie/N. Platte is 76%, Yampa/White is 79%, Arkansas is 80%, Upper Rio Grande is 91% and San Miguel/Dolores/Animas/San Juan is 97%. This data should not be given to much weigh in that it is still early in our winter precipitation cycle. Of note, though, is the low snowpack in the Wasatch Range in Utah.
GUNNISON PROGRAMATIC BIOLOGICAL OPINION STAKEHOLDERS MEET
The Upper Colorado River Recovery Program will be developing a Programatic Biological Opinion (PBO) for the Gunnison River similar to the one on the mainstem of the Colorado River. This PBO is to account for all of historic depletions in the basin as well as a reasonable expectation of future depletions. This process is on a different track than the consultations occurring on the operations for the Aspinall Unit. The PBO will include appropriate actions to mitigate for 6 federal projects in the Gunnison Basin as well as all private use of water in the Basin.
[There will be an effort to exclude any future transmountain diversion proposals from being considered in this consultation. Any new effort to take water from the Gunnison Basin should go through a separate consultation.]
UNUSUAL LOANS
The Colorado Water Conservation Board approved two unusual loans last month. One was to the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) and the other was to Colorado Parks and Outdoor Recreation Division of the Dept. of Natural Resources.
The 30-year WAPA loan was for $5.5 million at 4% interest on behalf of power users for their share of capital investments required in the Recovery Program. The loan will be paid back annually with revenues from the sale of power. WAPA offered as collateral the good faith and credit of the United States.
The Parks $1.7 million loan is at zero interest for its share to rehabilitate the Jackson Lake Dam just west of Fort Morgan along the South Platte River. Jackson Lake is a private irrigation reservoir which has a state park on its shore along with a marina. Parks put up a $900k trust account as collateral. The interest earned on the trust account will be used to make the annual payments. Jackson Lake gets 300,000 visitors a year. In dry years, however, the lake is drained to provide late season water for the irrigators who own the reservoir.
OFFICIALS CLAIM FED AGENCY WASTES WATER FROM W. SLOPE
Western Slope water officials allege the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is violating state and federal laws in the operation of the Colorado-Big Thompson project. For the complete story go to:
http://www.gjsentinel.com/auto/feed/news/local/2001/01/07/978845363.10461.8115.0197.html
(Grand Junction Daily Sentinel)
PLATTE RIVER COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT
Governor Owens agreed to extend the Platte River Cooperative Agreement for endangered species for an additional 30 months (with six more months if necessary).
This will allow Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado to independently review the science upon which some of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s determinations have been made. The States have committed to spend $300,000 to conduct such a review.
The extension will also allow for additional work to determine how the U.S. Forest Service will mitigate for thousands of acre feet lost through forest management practices. (Kent Holtsinger, Colorado Dept Natural Resources)
INSTREAM FLOW 2002 WORKPLAN
The staff of the Colorado Water Conservation Board will be holding a workshop on February 27, 2001, at 1:00 p.m. in Room 318 at 1313 Sherman Street, Denver, Colorado. The purpose of this workshop is to discuss and prioritize all identified stream reaches and natural lakes for field data collection efforts by the CWCB staff and other parties and for future instream flow protection. Parties interested in participating in this workshop should contact CWCB staff prior to the workshop at 303 866-3441. [The trend of instream flow filings is on a downward spiral. From an average of 30 filings/year, there will only be one segment filed on this year! It is important to nominate more segments. Although the CWCB is proud to have filed on 8,000 miles of streams and almost 500 lakes, that only accounts for a third of the streams in Colorado. If you can’t attend the workshop, send a letter to the CWCB at the above address (Rm 721) nominating streams not yet protected.]
STREAM RESTORATION
A new report from Rocky Mountain Institute on stream “daylighting” (de-culverting) restoration projects. Preparation of the report was partially funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The report is available as a free pdf download at http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid172.asp, or for $12 plus shipping and handling from the web site or by calling 800-333-5903.
NEW RULE PROPOSED FOR ACCOUNTING OF COLORADO RIVER WATER
Bureau of Reclamation is proposing a rule to account for “inadvertent overruns” on contracted water. Now that there are criteria for surplus deliveries in the Lower Colorado River Basin, it is necessary to quantify the amount of water the major contractors of water can use. This proposed rule will allow for up to a 10% overage depleted in any one year that must be paid back within the following three years.
ARIZONA TOWNS WANT TO DRAIN VERDE RIVER SOURCE
Several booming Arizona cities want to pump 4.5 billion gallons of ground water a year from the Big Chino Basin and pipe it over the mountains to the Prescott Valley, a plan Verde River communities and irrigators say could leave them dry every summer. Arizona Republic; Feb. 5
NEW MEXICO MINE WOULD DRAIN SACRED LAKE, TRIBES SAY
Critics say a proposal for a strip mine in one of New Mexico’s most remote regions would dry up a lake sacred to half a dozen tribes and be the first step in an irreversible process to sacrifice the region to outside coal interests. Santa Fe New Mexican; Jan. 8
GOV & FEDS SCUTTLE CCC HCP REVIEW
California Governor Gray Davis and U.S. Commerce Secretary Mineta have succeeded in sabotaging efforts to review Endangered Species Act (ESA) habitat conservation plans (HCPs) according to the tough environmental standards of the California Coastal Act says the L.A. Times Jan. 11. The CA Coastal Commission “backed down” after receiving a warning that the Commerce Secretary was about to make a “precedent- setting denial” of its request to review coastal HCPs in the state, a request that “ten other states have won routine approval for.” The withdrawal was cemented by the Governor’s dismissal of an alternate commissioner who favored the CCC review just a week before the key vote.
CA CREATES WATER RESERVE
State and federal agencies in California have joined together in a program to create a water reserve “to protect endangered fish” says the San Diego Union Tribune, Copley News Service Jan. 30. The program has allocated $60 million this year to buy water to be used if “low river flows threaten endangered fish.”
FOREST SERVICE READY WITH SIERRA NEVADA CONSERVATION PLAN
The Forest Service will adopt today its management scheme for a vast stretch of California’s Sierra Nevada Range, a plan that emphasizes protection of fish, wildlife and water quality, and that has a doubtful future in the Bush administration. Boulder Daily Camera (AP); Jan. 12
MONTANA LAWMAKERS SHOULD BE LEERY OF METHANE COMPANIES AND WATER LAW
The Montana Legislature is considering a bill to exempt methane drillers from state water-rights laws, but lawmakers shouldn’t sacrifice neighbors’ ability to protect their wells in the haste to capitalize on the current energy shortage. Bozeman Daily Chronicle; Feb. 1
COUNTY CHALLENGES ESA WATER POLICY
Okangan County, WA, has teamed up with a “coalition of irrigators” to challenge a NMFS policy that requires farmers to leave enough water in Methow Valley waterways to protect threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Feb. 7. After years of negotiations, the county is ready to go to court to “test a theory the ESA has precedent over state water rights and state’s water resource management.”
EEL RIVER DIVERSION A SLIPPERY ISSUE
Federal biologists are seeking to resolve an impasse with the California Dept. of Fish and Game over the amount of water diverted from the Eel River says the Santa Rosa Press Democrat Jan. 29. Some 52 billion gallons are diverted annually for “farms and cities in Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin counties” and the NMFS says that the state’s proposed 15% cut in the diversion is not enough “to save” threatened coho, chinook and steelhead. The fisheries service hopes to reach an agreement before issuing its final biological opinion, earlier versions of which found that a 15% cut in water diversion “is likely to jeopardize the continued existence” of the species.
BI OP SAYS DAM BREACHING NECESSARY
A NMFS biological opinion has concluded that “breaching” the half-completed, moth balled Elk Creek Dam is the only way to avoid putting “some endangered Rogue River coho salmon in danger of extinction” says the Oregonian Feb. 1. The bi op found that Army Corps of Engineers efforts to “trap and haul fish” around the dam “would destroy habitat critical to the threatened coho and degrade habitat essential to chinook salmon.” According to the Western Environmental Law Center evidence that the “dam is illegally killing coho should be very persuasive politically” in overcoming local opposition to the Corps’ proposal to ask Congress for funds to breach the dam.
ENERGY CRUNCH COULD MEAN DESTRUCTIVE DAM RELEASES
Environmentalists worry that California’s energy crisis will prompt dam regulators to focus on practices that increase profits at the expense of fish and habitat. Environmental News Network; Jan. 11 http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/0110tobaccomoney-ON.html
POWER CRISIS THREATENS SALMON
Responding to the West Coast power crisis, the Bonneville Power Administration declared an “emergency” allowing it to release more water from federal dams “than normally allowed under ESA protections for salmon” says the Oregonian Jan. 19. The released water was supposed to “boost” spring and summer flows but now “makes it likely that large numbers of young salmon will die” on their way to the ocean. The water comes from reservoirs already “depleted below levels the NMFS says are needed to guarantee” adequate flows for endangered salmon.
POWER CRISIS MAKES ESA EXPENDABLE
As recent actions by the Bonneville Power Administration to drain reservoir water saved for salmon” made clear, “in a power crisis, all deals to protect fish are off” says the Oregonian Feb. 5.
Environmentalist are now saying that “promised alternative measures” made in lieu of not breaching the Snake River dams “cannot be counted upon.” The decision to put BPA finances before salmon protection is all the more ominous given “this year is near drought, the fourth-driest in 72 years” and unless spring rains are “unexpectedly heavy” the spring salmon migrations will be in trouble.
SPARSE SNOW HAS MONTANA OFFICIALS WORRIED ABOUT POWER, FISH
Low snowpack in Montana has Columbia Basin biologists and hydroelectric officials worried that the two main headwaters reservoirs won’t fill this year. Kalispell Daily Inter Lake; Jan. 12
SALMON MIGRATION “OUTLOOK NOT GOOD”
A low snowpack, pessimistic flow forecasts and continued high demand for power throughout the West “could mean a grim year for juvenile salmon and steelhead migrating toward the ocean” says the Spokesman-Review, AP Jan. 28. This spring and summer’s migrations will test the new federal recovery plan and NMFS biologists are now saying “we will see just how bad bad is, given the current operation schemes.” Although federal agencies are planning to rely on increased “barging” of fish around the dams, they have few options “to keep temperatures at tolerable levels for the runs.”
OREGON GOVERNOR SAYS PUT SALMON BEFORE DEBT
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber has declared that the Bonneville Power Administration should delay debt repayment “in order to spare salmon runs in the Columbia Basin” says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Feb. 8. According to the Governor, the BPA has created a “pending environmental disaster” by drawing down “scarce water” from reservoirs needed to help spring and summer migrations just to avoid using money slated for debt repayment to buy power on the open market.
SUIT SEEKS TO BLOCK TRINITY RIVER RESTORATION
One of CA’s largest water districts has filed a lawsuit to block efforts to restore water diverted from northern California’s Trinity River says the L.A. Times Jan. 9. The Interior Dept. has decided to reduce diversions and allow the river to keep “nearly half its natural flow” to restore habitat for endangered salmon populations.
ALPINE FISH STOCKING ON HOLD
The California Dept. of Fish and Game is suspending trout stocking of high mountain lakes while biologists study the impact on “dwindling numbers of the mountain yellow-legged frog in the central and southern Sierra, and the Cascade frog in the far north” says the Sacramento Bee Jan. 9. Last summer, the agency stocked “883 wilderness lakes” with 2 million fingerlings and sport fishing business interests say that state is “unfairly focusing” on the stocking program when other possible causes of the amphibian decline such as airborne pesticides and “birds of prey” may be the problem.
CRACK APPEARS IN DAM RELICENSING BATTLE
In the “first FERC relicensing” of a dam in Oregon national forests since the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan gave “preservation of species a top priority,” PacifiCorp now “proposes letting the fish get past” the Soda Springs Dam says the Oregonian Jan. 24. Although the utility won’t say whether it will remove the dam or put in fish ladders to help restore salmon and steelhead to one of Oregon’s “most revered fish rivers,” the North Umpqua, the proposal indicates a precedent setting resolution to the state’s “most contentious dam-relicensing battle” could be near.
FERC TO EASE DAM-LICENSING PROCESS
The hydropower industry and their regulators, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have begun congressionally mandated hearings as the first step toward “streamlining” the dam relicensing process says the Spokesman-Review Jan. 9. Relicensing is “about the only time” that government agencies can mandate changes in dam operations and environmentalists contend that the hearings are the first “step toward limiting environmental scrutiny of dams, some of which block migrating salmon or cause other harm.” In the next decade, some 220 dams are up for relicensing, including the Hells Canyon complex of 3 dams which block “chinook salmon from reaching 80% of their Snake River habitat.”
WI GROUP #1 FOR DAM REMOVAL
Wisconsin’s “tiny, nonprofit River Alliance,” which has won “widespread acclaim” for efforts to clean up the state’s 30,000 miles of rivers and streams, has now “emerged as the No. 1 state group in the country in advocating for the selective removal of old dams” says the Madison Capital Times Jan. 30. The group says only a “small percentage” of the state’s dams are still useful and besides being “unsafe and uneconomical” are the “key reason a lot of rivers are ailing.” “Short of dumping raw sewage into a river” nothing is worse “than to dump a chunk of concrete in it.”
A MOVEMENT QUIETLY GATHERS STEAM IN EAST
Although proposals to breach the Western behemoths gets the attention, a “movement to remove obsolete dams” is gathering “force in the East” and fishermen are the first to notice the difference says the Christian Science Monitor Jan. 30.
In the last 15 years, 500 dams have been removed “to bring fish back and revive long-lost river customs” such as shad festivals.
BUSTING DAM GOOD TRAINING
A diversion dam could become “a military training ground for operating heavy equipment” if the DOD gives the go ahead to help the city of Gold Hill, OR get rid of what the NMFS says “is a barrier to fish passing from the Pacific Ocean to their upper Rogue River spawning grounds,” says the Oregonian, AP Jan. 19.
NEW 4(d) SALMON PROTECTION RULES IN EFFECT
New NMFS rules that expand protections to make it “illegal for individuals, businesses or local and state governments to kill or harm salmon or destroy important habitat” went into effect Monday says ENN, AP Jan. 8. Neither businesses nor conservationists, however, seem satisfied as “lawsuits from both sides are pending.” While environmentalists say the rules “do too little to protect fish,” business groups are challenging the rules’ “rationale” and oppose provisions that allow “third parties” to sue “alleged violators.”
WA AG DIRECTOR PREDICTS SALMON LEGAL “ARMAGEDDON”
Washington state’s Agricultural Director has predicted that the 4(d) rules for protecting salmon that just took effect “will result in a ‘litigation Armageddon’ that leaves little hope for farmers” says AP Jan. 10. “More than a year of meetings between farm groups and regulatory agencies” have failed to produce agreement on measures that farmers must take to protect 14 West Coast populations of salmon and steelhead listed under the ESA. Key unresolved issues are the width of buffer zones, use of pesticides and the amount of irrigation water diverted from rivers and streams.
TRIBES WANT BIGGER FISH TO FRY
In a small lawsuit, that could have much wider implications, “11 Western Washington tribes” want the state to correct “faulty construction and maintenance of culverts and pipes” that keep salmon from “reaching more than 3,000 miles of streams” necessary for spawning says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Jan. 17. The tribes contend that past treaties obligate the state “to practice environmental protection sufficient to allow the tribes ‘to earn a moderate living from the fishery’.” If successful, the lawsuit “could boost the Indians’ ability to affect public policy” particularly protection of salmon habitat.
SEATTLE HAMMERS OUT SALMON RECOVERY POLICY
The Seattle City Council is considering adopting one of the “city’s most comprehensive salmon-recovery policies to date” says the Puget Sound Business Journal Jan. 8. The city already has an “ambitious strategy” for protecting salmon with “numerous initiatives” such as reducing pesticides, restoring habitat, “changing grading and drainage rules and improved enforcement already under way.”
SALMON PESTICIDE DANGER
Environmental groups are going to court to get better protection for salmon from the dangers of pesticides says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Jan. 31. New studies have found that even small levels of pesticides “can reduce salmon survival by impairing their ability to smell.” Salmon depend on “smell to synchronize reproduction, identify predators and recognize their spawning streams.” The lawsuit by the WA Toxics Coalition, Northwest Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Associations and Institute for Fisheries Resources targets the EPA for failing to consult with the NMFS as required by the ESA when they issued regulations approving the use of pesticides.
IDAHO PLAINTIFFS SAY IRRIGATION THREATENS ENDANGERED FISH
Lawsuits by Idaho environmental groups claim irrigators illegally block waterways and divert threatened and endangered species into irrigation ditches where they die. It’s a test of century-old water law and the Endangered Species Act, and ranchers’ worst nightmare.
Idaho Falls Post-Register; Jan. 22 “Most of those years we never talked about what would happen if we dried up the streams. Because they owned a water right and water right was king, if it meant drying it up, it meant drying it up.” says Ray Rigby, a water attorney in Rexburg, who has represented Idaho irrigators for 50 years, on environmentalists’ suit that challenges century-old water law to protect endangered fish.
SALMON SCIENCE CALLS ON TECHNOLOGY
Scientists are using the latest in medical and biological technology to track the risks to migrating salmon. They’ve built sensor-laden robot fish and adapted ultrasound imaging devices, acoustic cameras, EMG telemetry, state-of-the-art tracking systems and airborne laser altimetry.
Spokesman-Review; Jan. 14
UTILITY PUT ON NOTICE FOR SALMON STRANDINGS
Puget Sound Energy, one of Washington state’s largest hydroelectric companies, was put on notice that environmentalists “would use new authority under the ESA to sue” if the utility “again strands protected fish or their eggs” says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Jan. 12. PSE is charged with “repeatedly” stranding protected salmon during operation and maintenance of their facilities, such as in September on the White River where salmon and bull trout “were trapped in small pools” and later on the Baker River where “perhaps thousands of salmon nests downstream” were left exposed.
SISKIYOU MINING MORATORIUM IN DOUBT
Among the regulations on hold by the Bush administration is a two year moratorium on mining claims on 1 million acres of Siskiyou N.F. and adjacent BLM land says the Oregonian, AP Jan. 28. President Clinton issued the moratorium as a “consolation prize to environmentalists who had been intensely lobbying” to have the area declared a new Siskiyou-Wild Rivers National Monument. If the moratorium is included in administration plans to “scrap or alter regulations it opposes,” it would undo a measure “to protect the best wild salmon and steelhead habitat in the Northwest.”
OIL SPILL CONTAMINATES OR RIVER
A fiery tanker crash has sent 6,000 gallons of oil into Oregon’s Yaquina River “threatening endangered fish species, birds and crustaceans” says the Oregonian, AP Jan. 29. Clean-up crews are battling to keep the spill from reaching Yaquina Bay, called the “richest, most biologically productive area on the coast,” even though the river, which is vital habitat for “chinook and coho, steelhead, cutthroat trout, beavers, otter and migratory birds” as well as “eagle nesting sites” has been severely fouled and “will take years to recover.”
CANADIAN OFFICIALS TO STUDY PCBS IN FISH-FARM SALMON
A B.C. scientist says he’s found higher levels of carcinogenic PCBs in farmed salmon than in wild salmon. Federal officials say they’ll investigate chemicals in the feed used on salmon farms, though they insist the events are unrelated. Globe and Mail; Jan. 15
CITY PLAYS BALL WITH RARE FISH
River front development plans for Pittsburgh’s new football and baseball stadiums are being “scaled back” to protect “six rare species of fish” says the Post Gazette Jan. 10. The six species, all listed as either endangered or threatened or candidates for listing, include the smallmouth buffalo, silver chub, mooneye, river redhorse, skipjack herring, and longnose gar. The new plans include reduced dredging to “preserve shallow water habitat.”
MAINE LOOKS TO BUSH FOR HELP ON ATLANTIC SALMON
Maine Governor Angus King is looking to President Bush and Interior Secretary, Gale Norton, to review the recent decision to list wild Atlantic salmon as endangered in eight Maine rivers says the Boston Globe, AP Jan. 15. The Governor and the state’s aquaculture industry “believe they will have a friend” in the new administration and while they don’t expect the listing to be “overturned,” they do hope “Norton will draft a recovery plan that is industry-friendly.”
SUPREME COURT WEAKENS ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
In a further “erosion” of federal power to regulate state activities, the Supreme Court has ruled that the Clean Water Act cannot prevent suburban Chicago “localities” from building a landfill on “seasonal ponds used by migrating birds” says the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, AP Jan. 9. The high court, however, “stopped short of overturning part” of the CWA, but according to the dissenting judges, the closely split 5-4 decision “needlessly weakens our principal safeguard against toxic water.” Congress did not intend the Clean Water Act to cover such small bodies of water, Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote for the majority.
Likewise, a 1986 refinement of the environmental law that deals specifically with the needs of migratory birds does not give the federal government such control, he added.
“Permitting the (government) to claim federal jurisdiction over ponds and mudflats,” such as those in the Illinois case, “would also result in a significant impingement of the states’ traditional and primary power over land and water use,” Rehnquist wrote.
NEW TULLOCH RULE FINALIZED
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are addressing a major regulatory loophole in the Clean Water Act by clarifying the types of activities that can harm wetlands, streams, and other waters, and are subject generally to Clean Water Act regulation. The new rule modifies the definition of “discharge of dredged material” in order to clarify what types of activities EPA and the Corps believe are likely to result in discharges that should be regulated. The Corps and EPA regard the use of mechanized earth moving equipment to conduct landclearing, ditching, channelization, in-stream mining, or other earth-moving activity in waters of the U.S. as resulting in a discharge of dredged material, unless project-specific evidence shows that the activity results in only “incidental fallback.” The rule also provides a definition of what constitutes non-regulable incidental fallback that is consistent with a recent court ruling.
While this action is an important step to protect the Nation’s wetlands, there is no regulatory action that can fully close the loophole in the Clean Water Act that has led to this type of wetlands destruction. The Administration has repeatedly called on Congress to strengthen the Clean Water Act and close this loophole completely.
The final rule to change the definition of dredged materials has published in the Federal Register. Additional information is available on EPA’s Office of Water home page at: http://www.epa.gov/ow.
Click on “What’s New” or contact the wetlands helpline at 800-832-7828.
WETLAND LOSS DECLINING, FOR NOW
According to a new government report, over the last decade the rate of wetlands destruction in the U.S. declined by 80% says the S.F. Chronicle, AP Jan. 9. Between 1986 and 1997, 644,000 acres (58,500 acres a year) were lost in the lower 48 states, a substantial improvement over the period between the mid-1970s and 1980s when an average of 290,000 acres were lost per year and the 1950s when 458,000 acres were destroyed annually. The good news comes on the heels of a Supreme Court decision which determined that Clean Water Act regulations do not apply to “isolated ponds and wetlands” within states, a ruling that could “remove 20% of the country’s waters from federal protection” says the N.Y. Times Jan. 10.
“USE OF CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS FOR STORMWATER RUNOFF”
This is a 20-minute video on how wetlands reduce pollution, design elements of wetlands, success stories, and sources of assistance. The video cost $19.95 and is available from the Cornell University Resource Center, 7 BTP, Ithaca, NY 14850 or visit the Cornell Cooperative Extension web site at http://www.cce.cornell.edu/publications/catalog.html.
EPA SETS NEW ARSENIC STANDARD
The Environmental Protection Agency set the arsenic standard at 10 parts per billion – one-fifth the old standard. The EPA in May proposed lowering the arsenic standard from 50 parts per billion to 5 parts per billion. It received and evaluated more than 6,500 pages of comments from 1,100 organizations. Some hope President Bush will be able to reverse the rule. Others are weighing legal challenges. Environmentalists, meanwhile, said the EPA should have set the standard even lower to better protect the public’s health.
Arsenic is a carcinogen and can cause other health problems, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. However, its effects at low levels – such as 10 parts per billion – have not been well studied, and there is no evidence of health problems tied to arsenic.
EPA TAKES ACTION TO PROTECT WATERS FROM RAW SEWAGE OVERFLOWS
EPA took action to protect public health and the nation’s beaches and waterways from disease-causing organisms and contamination that occurs from 40,000 raw sewage overflows each year. EPA specifically is taking action to reduce the sewer overflows that can lead to beach closures by proposing significant improvements in the operation and maintenance of the nation’s sewer systems. The proposed rule would require improved management of capacity and maintenance programs to reduce sewer overflows by strengthening current Clean Water Act permit conditions for over 19,000 sewage treatment plants around the country. The proposal would require 4,800 “satellite” sewage collection systems to get permits for the first time. Cities would be required to develop and implement plans to improve plant performance, encourage new investments in infrastructure, as well as perform a number of technical upgrades.
EPA would clarify that communities have limited protection from enforcement in very rare circumstances. For more information, visit http://www.epa.gov/water under “What’s New.”
EPA SETS WATER QUALITY CRITERIA FOR NUTRIENTS
EPA is setting water quality criteria which serve as recommendations to states and tribes for water quality standards for nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorous. States are expected to adopt or revise their nutrient standards by 2004, based on the new criteria. The new criteria are expected to significantly reduce nutrients in the nation’s waterways.
In a l998 water quality report to Congress, nutrients were listed as a leading cause of water pollution. About half of the nation’s waters surveyed by states do not adequately support aquatic life because of excess nutrients. In 1998, states reported that excessive nutrients have degraded almost 3.5 million acres of lakes and reservoirs and over 84,000 miles of rivers and streams to the point where they no longer meet basic uses such as supporting healthy aquatic life. For more information, visit http://www.epa.gov/ost/standards/nutrient.html
EPA SETS WATER QUALITY CRITERIA FOR METHYLMERCURY
EPA is protecting human health from methylmercury, the form of mercury that is found in contaminated fish. EPA is issuing under the Clean Water Act its first water quality criterion for methylmercury to be used by states in determining methylmercury levels in fish tissue. The new methylmercury water quality criteria are based on a new risk assessment (a reference dose) that EPA has developed in response to last summer’s recommendation by the National Academy of Sciences. Both the new criteria and the new reference dose are based on updated scientific data on environmental fate and human health effects of methylmercury. Additional information is available at http://www.epa.gov/ost/criteria/methylmercury
PRESIDENT BUSH STALLS CLEAN WATER REGULATIONS IN PROGRESS
Just three hours after President Bush’s inauguration, Andrew Card, the President’s Chief of Staff, issued a memo to all government agencies to put regulations on hold until the Bush Administration can review them.
FDA AND EPA ISSUE ADVISORIES ON FISH
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued advice to pregnant women and others on the hazards of consuming commercially available fish that may be contaminated with mercury. EPA, in conjunction with the FDA’s announcement, issued advice concerning fish from non-commercial sources – freshwater fish both caught and directly eaten by subsistence and recreational fishers.
EPA is recommending that women who are pregnant or may become pregnant, nursing mothers and young children, limit consumption of such fish to one meal per week (six ounces of cooked fish per adult; two ounces of cooked fish per child).
Additional information on FDA’s advisory is available at http://www.fda.gov on the Internet. Additional information on EPA’s advisory as well as a listing of state and local contacts on fish safety is available at http://www.epa.gov/ost/fish on the Internet.
RESIDENTS WORRY TRIAL COULD SPELL END OF IDAHO MINES
The largest Superfund case ever to go to trial pits Silver Valley companies against the Coeur d’Alene tribe and the EPA, and it starts in Boise this week.
Good background. Spokesman-Review; Jan. 22
ONE MINING COMPANY BARGAINS ITS WAY OUT OF KEY IDAHO LAWSUIT
One of four mining companies being sued over cleanup of Idaho’s Silver Valley has settled its portion of the suit, over the protests of the other defendants. Idaho Statesman; Jan. 22
HEAP LEACH DISASTER
One year after 3.5 million cubic feet of cyanide-laden toxic mine waste spilled into a tributary of the Danube river, killing all aquatic life in a 250-mile stretch of the river system, the Mineral Policy Center reports that little has changed in terms of government oversight or industry practice and that such a disaster could occur again today in Romania, the U.S., and other regions. Renowned geochemical and hydrogeological expert Robert Moran, Ph.D., finds serious shortcomings in the spill response and the report issued last year by the United Nations Environment Programme.
Moran reports:
* Regulatory agencies in Romania did not have sufficient tools or resources to conduct adequate oversight of the mine. These shortfalls exist in mining regions around the world.
* In the aftermath of the spill, testing was not done for cyanide breakdown compounds, radioactive constituents, and many heavy metals. Thus any conclusions are incomplete. Inadequate testing is a common problem worldwide, even in countries such as the U.S.
* The UNEP report used lax water-quality standards in assessing impacts of the spill.
* Mining company officials appear to have under-predicted the potential pollution risks of the mine, a practice that is common in the industry.
* Financial assurance is usually inadequate or lacking, thus mining companies may avoid paying for potential environmental impacts.
Copies of the report can be obtained by contacting Chris Cervini at ccervini@mineralpolicy.org or 703-338-2854 (cell).
