SOUTH PARK CONJUNCTIVE USE PROJECT (SPCUP) DEFEATED
Over 4 years ago, Aurora filed a water rights application to pump groundwater from the Sportsman’s Ranch near Como, CO, to feed its rampant growth. The applicant was hoping to pump 140,000 af/y. The water court judge dismissed the application saying the augmentation modeling showed insufficient water available. In defense from this attempted water grab, the citizens of South Park formed a new water conservancy district within the Southeastern Water Conservancy District to help fund their efforts.
RECREATIONAL RIGHTS
The summary of SB01-216 last month was based on an earlier version of the bill. A more accurate account of the bill that was approved follows. Only local governments (including counties and water conservancy districts,etc.) are permitted to seek such rights. Prior to seeking final adjudication of such a right in water court, the entity must submit the application to the Colorado Water Conservation Board for its review. The CWCB makes a recommendation to the water court for approval or denial. Its review is to be based on such things as whether the right would impair Colorado’s ability to develop and use its compact entitlements, whether it would promote maximum utilization of water, whether the flow is the minimum needed to provide a reasonable recreation experience, and whether there are plans for upstream water development. Findings of fact by the CWCB are presumptively valid in the water court proceeding. Conditional water rights may not be changed to recreational in-channel diversion purposes. The CWCB is proceeding on a fast-tract with a rule-making process to govern its review of applications.
At the end of June, the CWCB will hold public meetings in Glenwood Springs and Denver on the new proposed rules (A copy can be obtained by calling the CWCB at 303 866-3441). Deadline for comments on the draft rules is 7/1. A second draft will be released on 7/13 and discussed by the Board on 7/23. Adoption of the new rules will take place in September, to become effective on 11/30.
PREBLE’S MEADOW JUMPING MOUSE TAKE EXEMPTIONS
On May 22, 2001, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued its final “4(d)” rule for the mouse. Four types of activities are exempted from the general prohibition under the Endangered Species Act against “taking” a PMJM: rodent control; ongoing agricultural activities; maintenance of existing landscaping; and existing uses of water. The attempt in the proposed 1998 rule to establish “mouse protection areas” was dropped.
The rule is effective through May 22, 2004 by which time FWS expects the regional habitat conservation plans and the recovery plan to be in place. The Federal Register announcement and a related “questions and answers” can be found at
<http://www.r6.fws.gov/preblewww.r6.fws.gov/preble>
COLORADO WATER EDUCATION
Thirty-three water education providers met in April to share information about their programs. There was consensus that more coordination of water education in Colorado is needed.
CLOUD SEEDING RESULTS
A 3-year experiment in northern Mexico showed that rainfall from seeded clouds lasts longer, the rainfall area is larger and total precipitation is higher, sometimes even doubling that from similar, unseeded clouds, report the Denver Post, 5/27. A team from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO, using sodium, magnesium and calcium chlorides has been able to quantify the results. However, the number of cases is marginal for any statistical analysis. Cloud seeding in Colorado uses silver oxide. Cloud seeding is a permitted activity with oversight by the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
NEW FLOOD POLICY
Annual flood losses in the US continue to grow despite 75 years of federal flood control and 30 years of the National Flood Insurance Program. Many think this is primarily due to federal policies that have encouraged at-risk development, justified flood control projects that favor an intensification of land uses within the floodplain, and engendered an unhealthy reliance on federal resources by state and local governments. In response, the Association of State Floodplain Managers is promoting a new approach called “No Adverse Impact.” The proposed policy promotes fairness, responsibility, community involvement and planning, and local land use management while not infringing on private property rights.
UPPER COLORADO RIVER RECOVERY PROGRAM
A meeting of the Management Committee was held earlier this month. Some of the items on the agenda included: Status of the 2002-3 Workplan; Status reports on the Programatic Biological Opinion for the Yampa and Gunnison Rivers; Discussion on whether to increase the threshold for consultation on projects from 3,000 af to 4,500 af; Funding; Land acquisition; and Recovery Goals.
Recovery Program has served 619 projects in their consultations covering some 1.66 MAF. This includes 1.44 MAF are historic depletions. 1 MAF of existing uses on the Colorado above the Gunnison and the new depletions from 106 projects have been covered by the basin wide biological opinion.
The FWS Flow Recommendations for the Gunnison River are still not final. A stakeholders meeting on the Gunnison PBO will be held later this month. There have been preliminary discussions about a temperature control devise for the Aspinall Unit.
To get the full benefit of the Grand Valley Water Management Program (28,500 af flow savings for the 15-mile reach) requires storing some water in Highline Reservoir. Colorado wants $300,000 for that storage. Even though the BOR built that project, the Management Committee decided to approve the expenditure with BOR and Nature Conservancy abstaining.
It appears that Wyoming’s contribution to the Upper Colorado River Recovery Program will be limited to in-kind contributions after 2003.
This will include salary, benefits and overhead for Wyoming Program participants, travel expense, supplies and equipment.
WATER INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDING
A multitude of western water agencies has sent a letter to Pres. Bush asking him to “reverse years of declining budgets for Reclamation.” The letter says “Reclamation’s budget has fallen 36% over the past 10 years despite the demands placed on an aging water resources infrastructure by rapid population growth, greater environmental mandates and recurring drought conditions.” Bush’s current budget request is $814 million, with $648 for management, operations, maintenance and rehabilitation of facilities.
It also provides $2.8 million for the Minidoka Project in Idaho, and $34.9 million for the Central Utah Project, with $10.8 million of that to be transferred to the Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Account.
BUSH ADDS FUNDS TO CLEAN UP ATLAS MINE TAILINGS NEAR MOAB, UT
Reversing an earlier decision, the administration announced it is adding money to its budget to continue the cleanup of an enormous heap of uranium slag in southern Utah that has been leaking radioactive waste into the Colorado River, LA Times, 6/5. $1.4 million is being added to the current year’s budget to study how to move the heap several miles away from the river, a major source of water for 25 million people in Southern California and the Southwest.
COLORADO RIVER WATER DEAL STILL HAS A LONG WAY TO GO
Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt’s landmark deal that calls for California to scale back its overuse of Colorado River water still hinges on competing sides agreeing on conservation plans, and that’s far from assured. High Country News; May 22
<http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=10516>
INTERIM SURPLUS GUIDELINES
On May 15, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California ratified its entering into a forbearance agreement with Arizona and Nevada. The agreement requires MWD to adhere to California’s water management plan to reduce its use of Colorado River water to 4.4 maf. Arizona agrees to allow MWD to receive surplus water during the next 15 years for a “soft landing” on water use reductions.
COLORADO RIVER DELTA
The seven-basin states have been meeting to plan for a symposium on the Delta issues, scheduled for September, and to draft joint principles concerning the Delta in Mexico. These principles follow those adopted by Colorado in March. The 7 states are asking for a meeting with Sec. of Interior Norton to be assured that they will be included in any discussions with Mexico to address common environmental concerns in the Delta.
UPSTREAM STATES LEAVE LITTLE WATER FOR MEXICO’S COLORADO DELTA
Native Mexicans in the Colorado Delta must buy drinking water, at a rate that would cost them $13 million for the same amount of water for which developers in Palm Springs, Calif., paid $3,400 for at their water-ski estate. For years Mexico has been on the losing end of a “running battle” for a fair share of the Colorado River’s water, receiving only “one-tenth of what is drawn off above the border” says the Salt Lake Tribune, AP 5/21. After Mexican farmers use their share “only a trickle” remains for the biologically rich and dying Delta.
Conservationists calculate that unless “1% of the Colorado’s average flow” is allowed returned the “Delta will be lost for good.” Environmental groups led by Defenders of Wildlife, however, have sued the U.S. government, “charging that the miserly releases of water are destroying habitats” used by U.S. endangered species.
ANOTHER GREAT WESTERN RIVER TAPPED OUT
For the first time in history, a “sandbar has silted shut the mouth” of the Rio Grande says the Dallas Morning News 5/10. Thus, the Rio Grande joins the Colorado as the second great Western river whose waters no longer flow into the ocean.
Although “water weeds” and the worst drought since the 1950s are blamed, a biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife says the “aquatic weeds are a convenient scapegoat for state water policy that over controls the river and allocates virtually every drop to municipal, industrial and agricultural users.” Also reported in the Christian Science Monitor, 5/21.
<http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/05/21/fp3s1-csm.shtml>
GUIDELINES FOR BORDER WATER TALKS
Twenty-one U.S. and Mexican conservation and human rights organizations issued a binational declaration May 16 setting out principles they hope will guide the ongoing government talks about management of the Conchos River in Chihuahua, Mexico, and the lower Rio Grande along the Texas-Mexico border. The negotiations are taking place through the International Boundary and Water Commission under an agreement reached in March to help resolve water allocation problems related to prolonged drought in northeastern Mexico.
Greatly reduced rainfall run-off into the Conchos, which is the largest tributary to the Rio Grande below El Paso-Ciudad Jurez, has left Mexico with a deficit of over 1 million acre-feet of water under the 1944 treaty that governs allocation of the Rio Grande Basin flows to the United States and Mexico. In seeking to resolve Mexico’s deficit, the two governments have agreed to develop “measures of cooperation on drought management and sustainable management” of the Conchos and Lower Rio Grande basins.
The groups are calling for the governments to place a high priority on improving water use efficiency, particularly in the agricultural sector, which uses 80 to 90 percent of the surface water in the Conchos and Lower Rio Grande basins. They also are urging the governments to place increased emphasis on improving and protecting water quality in the basins. The groups are calling on the United States to help Mexico finance necessary water conservation measures and water quality improvements, particularly in the Conchos Basin.
The declaration urges Mexico to act swiftly to prevent further deforestation in the Sierra Tarahumara of Chihuahua. The pine forests of the sierra, which are at the headwaters of the Conchos, have been subject to heavy cutting and illegal logging in the past few years. In addition, the declaration emphasizes the importance of maintaining sufficient water flow through the Conchos and the Lower Rio Grande to avoid the severe environmental stress that has been placed on the river system during the past few years of reduced flows.
<http://www.texascenter.org/borderwater/>
<http://www.texascenter.org/publications.htm#BW>
<http://www.texascenter.org/publications/rioconchos.pdf>
PECOS RIVER LITIGATION SETTLEMENT
U.S. District Judge Parker has approved a settlement, filed 4/30, which ends litigation under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) brought by Forest Guardians against the Army Corps and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, in order to protect the Pecos bluntnose shiner (Civ. No. 00-0746 JP/RLP-ACE). Under the agreement, the Bureau of Reclamation will operate its Pecos River facilities in a manner consistent with a 2/14 biological assessment submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concerning 2001 interim irrigation season operations. Reclamation is expected to lease water rights and/or enter into irrigation forbearance agreements in order to provide a target flow sufficient to protect the fish. The parties anticipate that the management regime, based on this year’s forecast, should avoid “intermittency” in Pecos River flows.
SALTCEDAR CONTROL
Chinese leaf beetles (Diorhabda elongata) are beginning official duty as the first biological control agents released into the environment against
saltcedar (Tamarix spp.). Saltcedar infest more than 1 million acres along western waterways. Monitoring of the beetle and its impacts began in July 1999, when the insects were put out in large cages at 10 locations in six western states. Scientists first released the beetles from field cages last week near Seymour, Texas, and Pueblo, Colo. They plan to make other releases near Bishop, Calif.; Fallon, Lovelock and Schurz, Nev.; Delta, Utah; and Lovell, Wyo. Additional nursery cages are being established at new sites near Woodland and King City, Calif.
U.S. Department of Agriculture and cooperating scientists are watching these beetles closely to ensure their establishment and to evaluate their impact, population growth and safety. This information has been used to ensure that the biocontrol project protects all native species in the area, including the southwestern willow flycatcher. In some locations, these endangered birds nest in saltcedar that has crowded out their native willow nesting sites.
A consortium of more than 30 federal, state, and local agencies; universities; and private organizations received a $3 million grant in 2000 from the USDA’s Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems for work on a complex of invasive weeds, including saltcedar.
Scientific contacts: C. Jack DeLoach, ARS Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory, Temple, Texas, phone (254) 770-6531, <deloach@brc.tamus.edu;> Raymond I. Carruthers, Exotic and Invasive Weeds Research Unit, ARS Western Regional Research Center, Albany, Calif., phone (510) 559-6127, <ric@pw.usda.gov> .
WHEELING WATER IN CALIFORNIA
The cost to use publicly-built aqueducts and canals is being debated in the CA legislature, reports the LA Times, 5/6. SB 1029 would assign price setting for the use of conveyance structures to the State Water Resources Control Board. The need for this issue to be decided came as a result of a dispute between San Diego County and the Metropolitan Water District (MWD). San Diego arranged to buy saved water from the Imperial Irrigation District. To take delivery requires the use of the Colorado River Aqueduct, owned by MWD. To settle the law suit over the price MWD wanted to charge took the intervention of then-governor Wilson and then-Sec. Babbitt. MWD claims that if it loses authority over setting the price to use its distribution system, it would be put in the same position the electric utilities are in today. A major force behind SB 1029 is Northern California-based Western Water Co., a private company that would like to become a major player in arranging water sales, including sales to some of MWD’s best customers.
RED TAPE DOOMS RUSSIAN RIVER COHO
Sonoma County, CA officials are charging that “bureaucratic delays and disagreements” may have cost the Russian River coho salmon their last chance to be rescued from the brink of extinction, says the Santa Rosa Press Democrat 5/17. First listed as threatened in 1996, the “only significant group of coho” are now believed to be in Green Valley Creek near Forestville. A plan to “rescue” some of the fish for a captive breeding program fell apart because of disagreements between NMFS biologists and subsequent delays in issuing permits.
RECOVERY SLIP SLIDING AWAY
Over three decades after the unarmored threespine stickleback was placed on the endangered species list, the fish is farther from recovery than ever as it “faces a whole new set of threats, as well as most of those that endangered the fish in the first place” says the LA Times 5/12. Now believed to be confined to a section of Southern California’s Santa Clara River just outside of Santa Clarita, invasive plants and continuing urbanization, “especially development by such large landholders on the river as Newhall Land & Farming,” are making the “fish’s survival less likely.”
WATER MAY BE NEXT SHORTAGE
California’s Imperial Valley uses more Colorado River water than Arizona and Nevada combined, and the Rio Grande is just as over-committed. The next crisis, in the West and perhaps the world, may be shrinking supplies of fresh water. Deseret News (AP); May 13
GOD SQUAD REQUESTED
Two Western congressmen have asked Interior Secretary Gale Norton to “consider calling on the ‘God Squad’… to look at irrigation cutbacks in the Klamath Basin” says the Eugene Register Guard, AP 5/20. The members want The Endangered Species Committee, made up of 7 cabinet-level officials, to exempt the irrigation project from ESA protections for two endangered sucker fish and threatened coho salmon. Because of the severe drought in the region, federal biologists have said that most of the available water is needed to keep the listed species from going extinct.
PARTS OF MONTANA DRIER THAN DEPRESSION DAYS
Some Montana cities east of the Continental Divide have logged the driest spring on record, and in the state’s fourth drought year, conditions in some areas are exceeding those of the Dust Bowl. Great Falls Tribune; June 1 Another story at:
<http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20010606/localnews/647877.html>
DROUGHT THREATENS BALD EAGLES
Conservationists are ready to go to court if a federal irrigation project does not “provide minimal water for threatened bad eagles in the drought-parched Klamath Basin” says the SF Chronicle, AP 5/23. The USFWS has found that “up to 950 bald eagles,” the largest wintering population in the lower 48, would be harmed if at least some water cannot be found for the Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuge. The Bureau of Reclamation is buying well water for cattle pasture and environmentalists contend that it would be “wrong” and an ESA violation to deny the threatened eagles the minimum amount specified in the USFWS biological opinion.
OREGON WATER WARS RESONATE THROUGHOUT WEST
The lingering drought and competition for dwindling water has focused national attention on Oregon’s Klamath Basin, a nexus for the conflict between irrigators, environmentalists and tribes. Christian Science Monitor; 5/24 <http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/05/24/fp12s1-csm.shtml>
FEDS WANT IDAHO POWER WATER FOR SALMON
Federal officials want Idaho Power to release one-third of the water in Brownlee Reservoir in Hells Canyon to help flush young chinook salmon back to the sea, a move utility officials say would cause electricity rates to rise even higher. Idaho Statesman; June 8
IDAHO FARMERS WANT TETON DAM REBUILT
The Teton Dam in southeast Idaho collapsed 25 years ago this week, destroying at least one community and 100,000 acres of farmland, but these days, local farmers say more than ever they need the water and the West needs the power. Salt Lake Tribune; June 3
<http://www.sltrib.com/06032001/utah/102614.htm>
HYDROPOWER AWAITS “BETTER TIMES AHEAD”
The hydropower industry has anxiously awaited the administration’s energy plan and its promise to push for streamlining “one of the industry’s headaches: the process of re-licensing energy-producing dams” says the SF Chronicle, AP 5/15. One main concern is that the “licensing reforms” would jeopardize the “right of agencies that manage natural resources to place conditions on licenses to protect tribes, endangered species, clean water and other interests.” An example would be a requirement to “install a fish ladder as condition for getting a new license.” Casper Star-Tribune (AP); May 16
ENVIRONMENTALISTS WALK FROM TALKS
“Four key environmental groups” have walked away from collaborative talks with the Idaho Power Co. on relicensing the Hells Canyon Dams says the Idaho Statesman 5/10. Idaho power has abruptly refused to share studies it has done on the “impact of the three dams on salmon and other aquatic resources” after consultations with the NMFS over the endangered salmon broke down.
Before the dams can be relicensed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission must decide what steps are needed to “offset the impacts of the dams on salmon.”
IDAHO POWER PLANTS RAISE GROUND WATER CONCERNS IN SPOKANE
Two power plants proposed for the Rathdrum Prairie north of Coeur d’Alene, ID, would use 17 million gallons a day from the aquifer that waters Spokane, WA, and the growing dispute highlights the two states’ differences in ground water management. Spokesman-Review; May 14
PRIVATE LANDOWNER TO THE RESCUE
A Los Alamos Valley, CA, rancher has received $3,800 from the ESA national landowner incentive program to “help protect the county’s largest breeding pond for the California tiger salamander,” says the Santa Barbara News Press 5/2. The salamanders were found on the ranch in the 1960s, and the landowner has been “watching out for them ever since” but heavy erosion from a nearby hillside threatened to fill in the pond. The money will go toward grading and stabilizing the hill side.
IRRIGATORS MAY GET WHAT THEY WANT WITH BUSH APPOINTEES
Western irrigators say they’ve finally got friends in high places with sympathetic Bush appointees, while environmentalists say new officials are eager to compromise water-quality protections. Idaho Statesman; May 16
<http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/daily/20010514/localnews/116995.shtml>
STATE STREAMLINES WATER RIGHTS TRANSFER
Washington state has just passed a law to “make it easier for people to change or transfer existing water rights,” says the Oregonian, AP 5/11.
The law also provides tax incentives and allows people to donate or sell water to help fish without losing water rights. However, environmentalists fear that it “will lead to more water for farmers and less for fish” because local water conservancy boards, which are “more easily influenced by special interests,” have been given the “power to make decisions on water permits and transfers.”
SALMON BARGING UNDERWAY
The Army Corps of Engineers has begun its controversial program to “barge juvenile fish around hydroelectric dams” on the Columbia River “45 days earlier than usual” says the Spokesman Review, AP 5/4. Barging around the Snake River’s 3 dams began in early April but because of the drought and failure of the dams to release water over spillways, “river passage conditions are not going to be beneficial to fish.” The NMFS says that during 1997, the only year when “water flows were as low” as this year, “in-river fish survival was virtually nil.”
ARMY CORPS PLEADS HELPLESS TO COURT ORDER
The Army Corps of Engineers says it can’t change its operation of four Snake River dam to help salmon or to comply with a court order. Spokesman-Review; May 17. An Army Corps of Engineers report “insists that Snake River dam operations aren’t overheating the water and killing salmon” says the Olympian, AP 5/17. In response to a court order to determine how to meet federal water quality standards, the Corps has concluded that the dams do raise the water temperature but the actual operation of the dams “has no significant impact”. The ruling and Corps response has “added weight to arguments” that breaching the dams is the only way “to save threatened and endangered runs of salmon in the Snake River basin from extinction.”
TRIBES REJECT BPA TRADE OFF
Tribal officials have nixed a plan by the Bonneville Power Administration for a “limited spill” at some dams in exchange for increased power generation and reduced spills at others says the Seattle Times, AP 5/13. The tribes, who say the “swap would trade one set of fish for another” by helping mid-Columbia and Snake River fish at the expense of “upriver salmon,” want the BPA to “start a limited spill immediately” and then buy power on the wholesale market or water from irrigators.
HABITAT FIXES COULD SAVE SALMON AND SNAKE RIVER DAMS
The way to protect both hydroelectric power and salmon is with habitat improvements: The Bush budget allocates nothing, but Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo is pushing a $688 million package. Spokesman-Review; May 21
HATCHERY VS. WILD
Oregon Republicans and several American Indian tribes are pushing bills in the state legislature to have hatchery fish “counted in efforts to take weak runs of wild fish off the endangered species list” says the Statesman Journal, AP 5/23. The bill’s backers hope the legislation will spur a debate over salmon restoration and “even the ESA” to eventually reverse current federal and state policy which focuses on restoring wild salmon runs “which represent gene pools that evolved over thousands of years to thrive in their specific habitats.”
HATCHERY SALMON ALLOWED TO BREED
Against the recommendations of scientists, the NMFS is “reversing an unpopular policy” and allowing “hatchery salmon to reproduce naturally in Washington’s Methow River” says the Spokesman-Review 5/15. Back in April, the Independent Scientific Review Panel told the agency that the “scientific evidence indicates that natural spawning by hatchery-raised salmon poses significant risks to wild salmon.” The decision is part of an agreement for managing hatcheries in several tributaries of the Columbia River and contradicts a policy that held the hatchery salmon would “weaken the genetics” of wild salmon runs listed under the ESA.
BPA CLOSE TO DEAL TO KEEP MONTANA SMELTER IDLE
Bonneville Power Administration officials said they are close to finalizing a deal that would keep the Columbia Falls Aluminum plant closed for another two years, while still paying wages to more than half its employees.
Kalispell Daily Inter Lake; May 18
<http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news_fp2.stm>
BPA WON’T PAY FOR RAIN DANCES, DESPITE APPARENT SUCCESS
Bonneville Power Administration officials have rejected a $32,000 bill from the Yakima Nation for two rain-dance ceremonies, despite data that show precipitation has been above average for the first time this year in the weeks since the ceremonies. Tri-City Herald; May 21
BPA REFORM?
The Northeast-Midwest Institute has published an interesting pamphlet called Rethinking Bonneville- Why BPA Must be Reformed. The pamphlet focuses on the enormity of subsidies and presents some reform options. The report can be read and downloaded from
<www.nemw.org/rethinkingbonneville.pdf>
COW SPIES IRK RANCHERS
Ranchers are complaining that “they’re being spied on by state and federal regulators” who are implementing a new program to photographically document “cows that were polluting streams” says the Oregonian, AP 5/11. At issue are several streams that flow into the Snake River “where several species of steelhead are protected under the ESA.” The cattle harm the fish by causing “high levels of fecal coliform and nutrients in the streams” as well as removing vegetation and causing erosion.
NEW & BETTER DREDGING PERMITS
The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection has issued commercial river dredging companies permits that “incorporate new restrictions to protect aquatic life – especially rare freshwater mussels and fish” says the Pittsburgh, Post Gazette 5/25. The permits cover a 100-mile stretch of the Ohio and Allegheny rivers and require actually “sending divers to inspect the river bottoms – – to determine if rare aquatic life” such as the endangered silver chub, and black bullhead, threatened smallmouth buffalo and mooneye and candidate species like the river redhorse would be impacted.
SENATE WARNED OF SNEAK ATTACK
Over three dozen conservation groups have urged the Senate to guard against the return of an appropriations rider that would “block the Army Corps of Engineers from taking steps to protect three endangered species along the Missouri River” says American Rivers 5/16. The groups say that unless the Corps changes dam operations to mimic natural flows and restore river habitat the “least tern, piping plover and pallid sturgeon are likely to go extinct on the Missouri.”
EXTINCTION UPRIVER FOR ATLANTIC SALMON?
Atlantic salmon returned at dangerously low levels this year say biologists, Baltimore Sun 5/21, only between 45-75 adult fish returned to 8 Maine waterways last year.
It is the first time the composite estimate has fallen below 100 adult fish. Wild Atlantic salmon face pressure from escaped aquaculture fish and competition for water with blueberry farms.
B.C. FACES LOW RESERVOIRS, HIGH POWER PRICES
Low snowpack and dwindling reservoirs may cause B.C. hydroelectric utilities to cut back, industries to shut down and power prices to skyrocket. Globe and Mail; May 16
CRITICS SAY CANADIAN GOVERNMENT PREPARING TO SELL WATER
Despite the Liberals’ reassurances, critics say the federal government’s attempt to put a price on water is the first step toward wholesale exports.
National Post; June 1
CWA NO LONGER PROTECTS EPHEMERAL STREAMS
A ruling in Rice v. Harken Exploration Co. (No. 99-11229), the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in late April that “intermittent streams . . ., do not qualify as ‘navigable waters,” thereby excluded so-called ‘ephemeral streams from both the Clean Water’s and Oil Pollution Act’s reach. It is not clear if EPA is planning on appealing the ruling to the Supreme Court.
PERMIT NEEDED FOR AQUATIC HERBICIDE
A federal appeals court has ruled that a southern Oregon irrigation district must get an EPA permit before using acrolein, a “common and highly poisonous compound harmful to fish and wildlife,” to control weeds in its irrigation canal says the Olympian, AP 5/15. The decision which could have widespread implications for irrigation canals across the West stems from a “1996 incident in which acrolein leaked from a Talent canal and killed 92,000 young steelhead.” In Headwaters, Inc. v. Talent Irrigation District the court found that the herbicide, Magnacide H, becomes a pollutant following its application and that the waters carried in the ditch system are waters of the United States.
The court distinguished the approval and labeling purpose of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act from the pollution control function of the Clean Water Act. Magnacide H is approved for use under FIFRA and has a label identifying its toxic nature and stating that it should be kept out of lakes and streams. Despite the fact that the label does not state that an NPDES permit is required for its use, the court held that its discharge into ditch waters requires such a permit.
EPA IGNORES PESTICIDE IMPACTS ON SALMON
Court documents have revealed that the EPA has “known about pesticides’ adverse affects on the region’s salmon” but has not incorporated the information into regulations protecting water quality says Greenwire 5/7. An EPA official admitted that the “EPA has done nothing with the data it has on the long-term effects of pesticides on endangered Northwest salmon.” Environmental groups are suing the EPA for violating the ESA by not “taking into account the chronic and delayed effects of pesticides.”
EPA MAY EXCLUDE LAKE FROM COEUR D’ALENE SUPERFUND LABEL
EPA officials may take Lake Coeur d’Alene out of a basinwide Superfund designation, under intense pressure from business groups and despite complaints from environmentalists. Spokesman-Review; May 15
SOLVENT BLAMED FOR MONTANA RAILROAD WORKERS’ BRAIN DAMAGE
A solvent that has leaked into ground water from a railroad depot in Livingston, Mont., has been linked to brain damage among railroad workers, including 27 in Montana. Bozeman Chronicle; May 15
MOSQUITOFISH NOT GOOD
An introduced fish species, gambusia, “used widely in New Jersey to control mosquitos” is harming native aquatic life and becoming an “alien scourge to the environment” says the Boston Globe, AP 4/29. The aggressive predator, native to the southeastern U.S., Mexico and Central America eats “salamander eggs, and tadpoles and the plankton that keeps ponds from being choked with algae” as well as attacking “fish 100 times their size” such as largemouth bass.
Australia “outlawed the fish in 1999” and India says the gambusia have “destroyed at least three major lakes by attacking native fish.”
SWINE FARMS LINKED TO ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANT BUGS
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria can be detected in waste “lagoons” and groundwater near swine production facilities, researchers report. In a new study, Dr. Rustam I. Aminov of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and colleagues used a method to detect antibiotic resistance genes in bacterial DNA extracted from waste lagoons near two swine farms. The investigators found that the bacteria carrying the resistance genes had seeped into the underlying groundwater and could be detected as far as 250 meters (about 820 feet) downstream of the lagoons.
“These observations may have important implications for understanding the circulation and acquisition of antibiotic resistance genes,” the study authors report in the April issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology. They suggest that antibiotic-resistant bacteria could enter the animal and human food chain via drinking water. “If you consider how many other antibiotics are used in animal industry–21 antibiotics are approved for the use in swine industry–we would have a tremendous diversity of antibiotic resistance genes flowing into the human food chain,” Aminov told Reuters Health.
ARMY CORPS WANTS TO EASE WETLANDS RULES
The Army Corps of Engineers wants to roll back year-old regulations that made it harder for developers to get permits to fill in and build in wetlands. Washington Post; June 4
NEW WATERSHED TRAINING BROCHURE RELEASED
EPA’s Watershed Academy has just published an updated EPA Watershed Training Opportunities brochure. It includes descriptions of the Watershed Academy’s training courses, publications, watershed management facilitation services, and web-based training, as well as other EPA training courses and educational materials. This booklet updates an earlier version, published in 1998. Access the new EPA Watershed Training Opportunities online at:
<www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/wacademy/wtopps.html> .
Hard copies of this booklet are also available by calling 800-490-9198; Provide the document number EPA 841-B-01-002 when ordering.
TOOLS
Conservation Assistance Tools has spent the first half of 2001 updating the information found in its searchable directory for grants, cost sharing, and technical assistance available for natural resources projects in the western United States. Seven hundred foundations, government agencies, and other organizations have provided CAT up-to-the-minute information about the grants and services they provide. In the second half of the year, the remainder of the resources found in CAT will also be updated. Visit Conservation Assistance Tools at
<http://www.sonoran.org/cat/default.asp>
NEW NATIONAL TMDL WEB-SITE <http://www.tmdls.net/>
