WATER IS ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE OF EARTH DAY 2002
Water quantity and quality, from community sewer projects to Superfund projects, top the nation’s list of environmental priorities. Christian Science Monitor; April 22 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=1893>
COLORADO TASK FORCE WARNS OF BROAD DROUGHT IMPACTS
Colorado officials were warned to start planning for sanitation problems, emergency water transfers and less tourist spending if the current drought worsens. Boulder Daily Camera; April 25 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=1966>
DROUGHT DEEPENS, CONCERN RISES ACROSS WEST
Colorado is in the midst of an historic drought, and Utah, Montana and much of the West are girding for another dry summer. ENN (Reuters); April 25 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=1971>
DROUGHT MEANS HIGHER PRICES FOR WATER IN WYOMING
Drought is stretching the limits of Wyoming’s water supply, and in some places that means rate hikes are likely. Casper Star-Tribune; April 25 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=1982> FLOATING CONTROVERSY RAGES — All efforts to work out a negotiated settlement of the civil trespass issue attached to floating rivers across private land in Colorado have come to a screeching halt. Rafting outfitters had been meeting with private landowner groups for the past two years to address the concerns of landowners about giving permission or prohibiting access on the rivers across their lands. The continuing effort was threatened by a lawsuit filed by two ranch owners on the Lake Fork of the Gunnison against the local rafting company. The landowners do not want compensation for damages but are asking for an injunction to prevent access without permission. Colorado is the only state where the right to float is not incorporated into state law.
The situation blew up last month when the Creekside Coalition tried to get an amendment attached to an unrelated bill that would make it illegal to fish while floating across private land. The amendment and the bill were swiftly defeated by an uprising of disgruntled fisherman sending lawmakers to hide for cover. The Creekside Coalition apparently doesn’t like the public catching the fish they stock in the streams on their land. (Once private hatchery fish are stocked in a stream, they become the property of the state.) The outfitters consider this initiative as a sneak attack and a gesture of bad faith. The Colorado River Outfitters Association is organizing to mount a ballot initiative to allow the Colorado voters to decide whether there should be free access to our rivers to protect a very important part of our economy. “Floating and fishing rivers is a part of our frontier history, quality of life and vital tourism economy” was Kevin Schneider’s response, chairman of the Colorado River Outfitters.
COLORADO LEGISLATION
Two bills have been approved by lawmakers in the current session of the Colorado legislature with a positive affect on river protection.
SB-156 improves the state Instream Flow Program by allowing the Colorado Water Conservation Board to purchase existing consumptive use water rights to be changed to instream flows to improve the natural environment. Previously, the Board could only acquire the minimum needed to protect the environment. Now it can purchase additional water where legal availability limited the appropriation of environmental flows. It also authorizes the CWCB to use any funds available to it for this purpose other than construction loan funds and litigation funds.
SB-87 sets up an income tax check off that allows taxpayers to allocate some of their income tax refund to be used for watershed restoration projects. The fund will be overseen and distributed by the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the Water Quality Control Commission. Grant applications from watershed groups will be filtered through the Colorado Watershed Assembly.
SUPERFUND BUDGET CUTS MAY IMPACT ABANDONED MINE CLEANUP
Decline in the Superfund budget will most likely impact the 20 Superfund sites in Colorado, however it is unclear exactly how. The state is littered with abandoned mines that are in need of reclamation but with the present budget cuts their clean up may be delayed. <http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,417%257E495465,00.html>
GUNNISON RICD
The Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District has filed for a Recreational In Channel Diversion (RICD) to protect flows for a whitewater park Gunnison County will build. Flows range from a high of 1500 cfs in June to a low of 270 cfs in September. The filing is for 5 months, from May to September.
WATER ADMINISTRATION STARTS EARLY
With the extremely low snowpack this year, the low runoff is causing earlier administration to protect senior rights. In over-appropriated basins, curtailment of junior diverters doesn’t usually occur until June or July. This year, we have already seen “calls” in April. Hay and food crops could be slim this year.
WILDERNESS WITHOUT WATER
A current attempt to create wilderness of 7,300 acres of Deep Creek Gorge, in Glenwood Canyon, is stalled because of the lack of water protection language. Negotiations between Rep. Scott McInnis and Mark Udall is focused on water rights that would be acquired by the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
SELENIUM SOURCE REDUCTION
A broad-based group of stakeholders has been working for the past three years to reduce the amount of selenium being mobilized by irrigation from the Reclamation project in the Uncompahgre River valley. A current proposal of the group includes support for funding under the National Irrigation Water Quality Program to pipe over 200 miles of laterals within the project area where selenium loading has been pinpointed. <http://www.seleniumtaskforce.org/>
DUNE DYNAMICS
DUNE MESSIAH — It’s a rare moment when ranchers and environmentalists see eye-to-eye — and yet a collaboration between the two parties is leading to the creation of the nation’s 57th national park. The unlikely relationship began when enviros and ranchers realized they had something in common: a need to protect the water resources in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. Although it receives very little rainfall, the valley traps runoff from neighboring mountain ranges, replenishing its aquifer and making the region rich in H20, one of the state’s most prized resources. The water is a lifeline for thousands of ranchers in the area — and it is also the golden goose for investors who would like to export the water for profit. To prevent that from happening, ranchers and environmentalists helped dream up the Great Sand Dunes National Park, combining a sand dunes national monument, marshes, mountains, and the 97,000-acre Baca Ranch recently purchased by the Nature Conservancy. The park, which will be one of the most diverse in the nation, has already been approved by Congress and could become a reality as early as 2005. <http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0411/p11s01-sten.html>
ALBUQUERQUE’S GROWTH DEPENDS ON WATER PROJECT IN COLORADO
The future of Albuquerque may well depend on the success of the sure-to-be-controversial plan to divert water from the Rio Blanco River in Colorado, 222 miles away. Albuquerque Tribune; April 22 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=1878>
SILVERY MINNOW BI OP UPHELD, BUT
A federal judge ruled that the Bureau of Reclamation has the discretion to reduce water deliveries to farmers and municipalities to protect habitat of the critically imperiled Rio Grande silvery minnow says the Albuquerque Tribune 4/22. The decision was a mixed victory for conservationists because it also upheld a USFWS biological opinion that “would permit significant drying of parts of the minnow’s habitat.” The bi op was being challenged on grounds that it was “not supported by science and would not provide enough water for the silvery minnow’s survival.” <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=1879>
SANTA FE WATER RESOLUTION A MUST-PASS
Santa Fe-area voters must approve a sales tax increase to help fund water development, unless they want water shortages to become chronic. Santa Fe New Mexican; April 03 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=1227> PLANNERS IN NM HAVE 1 YEAR LEFT TO HAMMER OUT WATER PLAN — Planners want to combine community goals with technical expertise as they work to complete a water use plan for the Middle Rio Grande in New Mexico. Albuquerque Tribune; April 19
DROUGHT, WATER WARS KEEP RIO GRANDE DRY
Continued drought and ranchers on both sides of the U.S. and Mexican border fighting for water have left the mighty Rio Grande dry. New York Times; April 19 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=1845>
U.S. AND MEXICO IN STANDOFF OVER WATER
Normally Eduardo Melendez’s healthy pecan trees and thick carpet of vibrant green alfalfa would draw admiration. But this year, fields such as his in the drought-stricken state of Chihuahua are raising angry suspicions in a bitter fight for Rio Grande water that threatens to escalate into a standoff between the United States and Mexico.
<http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/05/05032002/ap_47117.asp>
MEXICAN PRESIDENT PROMISES TO FIGHT U.S. ON WATER ISSUES
President Vicente Fox met with several governors from northern Mexico, promising to support them in their fight with the United States over water. “I’m very proud to see Mexican culture flourish in the northern part of the country, and in front of the United States,” Fox said. “I believe that it is necessary that we continue working to construct step by step a Mexico that we all want.” <http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/04/04232002/ap_fox_46999.asp> A report expected soon from the International Boundary Water Commission is expected to show increased crop production in the state of Chihuahua at a time when Mexico is claiming drought conditions are hampering the release of water into the Rio Grande. There were no public statements concerning Mexico’s 1.5 maf shortfall in making water deliveries to the US following last month’s Bush-Fox summit in Monterrey.
DROUGHT, POLITICS DRAIN COLORADO RIVER RESERVOIRS
Lake Powell is 53 feet below full pool, thanks to an ongoing drought and complicated Colorado River water politics, neither of which is likely to get better soon. High Country News; April 02. With this year’s projected inflows, Lake Powell reservoir is only expected to rise 3 feet.
A CHANGE IN THE CENTRAL UTAH PROJECT
H.R. 4129, introduced by Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) would facilitate the sale of Central Utah Project water to municipalities.
GEOLOGY THWARTS WATER TUNNEL IN UTAH
The Central Utah Project suffered a multimillion-dollar setback when a pipeline set to bring water into the center of the state hit impassable geology. Salt Lake Tribune; April 07 <http://www.sltrib.com/04072002/utah/726288.htm>
PRESSURE MOUNTS FOR WATER THAT FEEDS GREAT SALT LAKE
Development is raising demand for water from the Great Salt Lake’s three primary tributaries. High Country News; April 30 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=2059>
GRAND CANYON TEST FLOOD FAILED IN THE LONG RUN, SCIENTISTS SAY
A 1996 experiment to raise Colorado River flows to rebuild Grand Canyon beaches was declared a success then, but now scientists say no. Salt Lake Tribune; April 10 <http://www.sltrib.com/04102002/utah/727085.htm> In an effort to save the humpback chub, rebuild beaches, and kill part of an excessively large trout population, new flooding plans were approved 17 to 1 by the Adaptive Management Working Group, composed of every major group with an interest in the river. Wildlife officials, archaeologists, and rafting company operators all favor creating beaches along the river, which would be accomplished by allowing floods to deposit sediment along the water’s edge. After the flooding, river managers would alternate high and low flows every day to dry out the spawning grounds of the rainbow trout and destroy its eggs. As the final part of the plan, scientists would kill thousands of trout in a five-mile stretch of the river where the endangered humpback chub spawns. “No more than 2,000 adult chub” are estimated to remain in “their native habitat” at the mouth of the Little Colorado. The head of the panel’s science advisory group said that “quick action was needed to save the endangered humpback chub where its young are disappearing.” If approved by Interior Secretary Gale Norton, the experiment would be the fourth attempt to alter river conditions by dam manipulation. <http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0426river26.html>
THE SALTON OF THE EARTH
The Salton Sea is California’s largest lake — and one of the most endangered habitats in North America. The sea is extremely salty and getting more so every day. And outbreaks of botulism and lack of oxygen have killed thousands of the birds and fish that call the lake home. Now the lake faces another threat: California is under federal mandate to reduce the amount of water it uses from the Colorado River by the end of this year, and the proposal on the table would virtually dry up the Salton Sea’s major water source — agricultural runoff from the Imperial Valley. Scientists say the lake will be largely evaporated and entirely dead by 2030. That would cause serious erosion and air pollution problems, and would be an ecological disaster for the 400-odd bird species that currently rely on the lake. (Ironically, the Salton Sea is an artificial lake, created when a levee broke on the Colorado in 1905, but it has become increasingly important to birds, as other wetlands areas have been drained and developed.) <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/02/science/earth/02SALT.html> Gov. Grey Davis is suggesting that the Imperial Irrigation District (IID) fallow land to facilitate the transfer of water from IID to San Diego County as part of California’s 4.4 Plan. Fallowing would have the least environmental impact on the Sea. Inland Valley Press, 4/29. <www.ivpressonline.com>
TORTOISE MUST ENDURE WATER PROJECT
The USFWS has determined that the Cadiz Land Co.’s proposal to pump huge amounts of water out of a Mojave Desert aquifer “would not imperil the desert tortoise” says the L.A. Times 4/6. The decision moves the “controversial project one-step closer to approval” and accepts proposed mitigation measures which include banning “tortoise-eating dogs,” keeping “tortoise-eating birds such as ravens from congregating” near holding ponds, and ordering project employees to “drive cautiously and watch for the slow-moving herbivorous reptiles.” Environmentalists “called the review inadequate.”
HOPI TRIBE WATCHES LIFEBLOOD SPRINGS DRY UP
The springs and seeps on the Hopi Tribe’s Arizona reservation are gradually drying up, and tribal leaders blame Peabody Coal Co. for taking 1.3 billion gallons of ground water a year for its coal-slurry pipeline. <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=1072>
NRDC SAYS COAL COMPANY IS DRAINING ARIZONA AQUIFER
The Natural Resources Defense Council has released a study that contradicts Peabody Coal Co.’s claim that pumping billions of gallons of ground water isn’t hurting the aquifer beneath the Hopi and Navajo reservations. Arizona Daily Sun; 5/1 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=2075>
ARIZONA APPROVES ANOTHER IN A STRING OF NEW POWER PLANTS
Arizona regulators approved the 15th power plant in four years, a 1,080-megawatt plant in western Arizona that critics say will drain the aquifer and overload the transmission system. Arizona Republic; April 10
TRANSBOUNDARY WATER
The first International Symposium on Transboundary Waters Management will take place in Monterrey, Mxico on November 18-22, 2002. The Symposium’s objective is to review the main issues involved in the management of transboundary basins and aquifers with an integrated scope. Water quantity and water quality management, as well as aspects related to agricultural and industrial development, forests and fisheries, will be discussed. Social, economic, political and education issues will also be included, in view of their relevance in the international and interstate water resources arena. <http://www.transboundarywatersmexico.org/>
CONCERNS OVER COMMON AQUIFER DRAW IDAHO, WASHINGTON OFFICIALS
Top officials from northern Idaho and eastern Washington are meeting to try to iron out competing concerns over use of the aquifer that underlies their region. Spokesman-Review; April 10
GROUPS COALESCE TO DELAY DRAWS FROM NORTH IDAHO AQUIFER
Three power plants in northern Idaho would pump as much as 17 million gallons a day from the aquifer that waters 400,000 people from Coeur d’Alene to Spokane, but not if a diverse coalition of critics prevails. High Country News; April 17
FIRM WITH PLANS IN IDAHO DROPS PROPOSAL FOR WASHINGTON PLANT
Cogentrix, a company that wants to build a power plant in north Idaho and tap the aquifer that waters Spokane, dropped plans for another plant on the Columbia River because of water issues. Spokesman-Review; April 11
MISSOURI MOST IMPERILED RIVER
American Rivers has named the Missouri as the “nation’s most endangered river in an annual ranking by conservationists” says the St. Louis Post-Dispatch 4/2. According to the group, the #1 ranking was given because the “Big Muddy has continued to deteriorate” because of management policies designed to accommodate barge and agribusiness interests and highlights an upcoming decision by the Army Corps of Engineers on whether or not to change dam operations along the river to “improve the river’s environmental health” by restoring more natural flows. Efforts to change the management plan for the river have pitted environmentalists against farmers, as well as downstream states against those upstream. The current report marked the second year in a row and the third time since 1997. Other rivers in bad shape include the Big Sunflower in Mississippi, the Klamath in Oregon and California, the Kansas in Kansas, the Powder in Wyoming, the White in Arkansas, and the Apalachicola in Florida. Read the full report at <http://www.americanrivers.org/mostendangered2002/>
COMPROMISE NEEDED TO SAVE LAKE
Conservationists, tribal leaders, farmers, state and local officials were urged to seek “local compromise and federal dollars” at a summit to save Nevada’s dying Walker Lake says SF Gate, AP 4/3. Walker and Pyramid Lake to the north are two of just six desert freshwater lakes in the world that lack an outlet. Water diversions, largely for agriculture, have caused the 38,000-acre lake to drop “more than 130 feet” and lose 70% of its volume, increasing salinity and toxic agricultural runoff to the point that threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout and other aquatic wildlife are in jeopardy.
TRINITY GETS MORE WATER
A court decision will give California’s Trinity River more water for its salmon and steelhead but still less than it “would have received under a disputed ruling by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt” says the Sacramento Bee 4/20. Hydropower and agricultural diversions had taken up to 90% of the river’s historical flow and largely destroyed Hoopa and Yurok tribal fisheries before Babbitt agreed to return almost 50% of the Trinity’s flow. Irrigators sued to block the restored flow and a judge has now decided to give the tribes almost 40% of the river’s historical flow.
AMERICAN TROUT MAY GET BOOST FROM EXPATRIATE TROUT
Scientists may be able to partly contain whirling disease, introduced to the United States by fish imported from Europe, with the help of a disease-resistant American trout that has dwelled on the continent for a century. “We have been looking very hard in North America for whirling-disease resistant trout and haven’t found any. We have found a fish that was moved to Germany from the United States in 1880 or 1890 that is very promising,” said epidemiology professor Ronald Hedrick of the University of California-Davis, perhaps the leading U.S. authority on the disease.
<http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/03/03272002/ap_46768.asp>
CULVERTS NEED BIG FIX
Congressional appropriators learned that “federal land managers need to fix as many as 5,500 culverts in Oregon and Washington to enhance passage of endangered fish and comply with the ESA” says the Oregonian 4/11. A Forest Service biologist testified that “culvert improvements are a cost-effective method of restoring habitat” because they can open access to healthy streams at much less expense in time and money than trying to rehabilitate streams with degraded habitat.
COLUMBIA DREDGING RAISES HACKLES
An Army Corps of Engineers plan to deepen the Columbia River’s 100-mile shipping channel has drawn criticism from environmentalists, Indian tribes and fishermen who say “it will disrupt a delicate ecosystem that includes 23 threatened and endangered species” says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer 4/13. Opponents contend the plan, which would remove almost as much rock, sand and mud from the channel as the Panama Canal project, “overestimated the economic benefits and under estimated the effect on nature.”
NMFS RELEASES NUMERICAL SALMON RECOVERY GOALS
The National Marine Fishery Service has released preliminary numerical recovery goals that will help determine when ESA protections are removed for 7 species of upper Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead says the Columbian 4/11. Although the goals are just one of several factors that would trigger delisting, the Save Our Wild Salmon coalition points out that it is not enough to merely pull the salmon back from the brink of extinction. There is a “higher obligation to restore salmon-dependent economies and uphold tribal treaty obligations.”
PROTECT WILD SALMON ONLY
Conservation groups are asking the NMFS to list “only wild salmon” under the ESA to “avoid the legal pitfalls of lumping them with hatchery fish” says SF Gate, AP 4/25. The petition comes in response to a court ruling that “temporarily removed Oregon coastal coho from the threatened species list” and a subsequent decision by the NMFS to reconsider the listing of most species of Pacific coast salmon. The agency has also received petitions to delist 15 different salmon and steelhead runs that have both hatchery and wild fish as part of their evolutionary significant unit listing.
WATER DEAL AVOIDS LITIGATION
The NMFS has reached a “last-minute agreement” with irrigators in Okanogan County, Washington over diversions from the Twisp and Methow Rivers says the Seattle Times, AP 4/23. The NMFS was ready to ask the courts to halt water diversions because “old, inefficient canals use too much water for farm irrigation, leaving too little in the rivers for endangered spring chinook salmon and steelhead.” The Methow Valley Irrigation District in north-central Washington State was ordered by a federal judge to improve the efficiency of its irrigation system by April 1 or go without water. Under the agreement the agency will defer a study on how much water returning and spawning salmon need until after the irrigation season and irrigators will use pumped well water if flow levels drop to “levels needed for endangered fish.”
JUDGE HEARS KLAMATH TAKING CASE
A federal claims judge has begun hearing arguments from lawyers representing Klamath Basin agribusiness interests who claim that an irrigation cutoff to protect imperiled fish “amounted to a taking of their private property, and that farmers should be compensated,” says the Klamath Falls Herald and News 4/8. The irrigators are seeking between $300 million and $1 billion in compensation and the case is expected to “take two years to work through the system.”
KLAMATH WATER PLAN JEOPARDIZES FISH
A USFWS draft biological opinion has determined that the Bush administration’s 10-year plan to prioritize water deliveries to Klamath Basin agribusiness would “jeopardize the survival of endangered suckers unless the government undertakes costly restoration and protection measures to aid the fish and their habitat” says the Oregonian 4/26. Agency biologists “remain troubled about the decline in water quality and shrinking habitat” that would be exacerbated if the administration carries out its water delivery plan. California’s Dept. of Fish and Game attacked the Bush administration’s plan to prioritize water deliveries to Klamath Basin agribusiness saying that “endangered fish will be deprived of water they need to survive” reports the L.A. Times, 3/29. Surprised and frustrated state wildlife officials, who have been working to save imperiled coho salmon, worried that the “flows are just far too low” and would harm the salmon at a time when they “badly needed water.”
FISHERMEN HAVE RIGHT TO KLAMATH WATER TOO
Commercial fishermen are going to court to demand that the Bush administration release more water into the Klamath River to “help young salmon on their spring migration to the ocean” says the Salem, OR, Statesman Journal, AP 4/25. “Arguing that fishermen have just as much right to water” as Klamath Basin agribusiness interests, the lawsuit charges that the Bureau of Reclamation is “playing fast and loose” with the ESA. “It’s mind-boggling that the administration would give the lower river even less water this year than during last year’s drought” said the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.
OFFICIALS FORCED TO RECONSIDER PLACING CUTTHROAT TROUT ON ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST
Citing new scientific evidence that the westslope cutthroat trout may be in greater danger of extinction than once thought, a federal court ordered the U.S. Dept. of Fish and Game to re-evaluate placing the fish on the endangered species list. Spokesman-Review; April 05
GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA’S MARINE RESOURCES
Over 150 of California’s marine species are detailed in a comprehensive new guide to the state’s marine life says ENS 2/26. The “landmark reference” by government and university scientists provides the “best available information on oceanic and environmental conditions, law enforcement efforts and socioeconomic considerations that affect management of the state’s marine resources” and is available on line at <www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/status>
HYDRO RELICENSING BIG DEAL FOR TRIBES
When many of the Pacific Northwest’s hydroelectric dams were built, the concerns of Indian tribes were of little consequence but things are changing now that the 50-year licenses for non-federal dams are expiring says the Spokesman- Review 3/26. Northwest tribes, backed by “treaties and landmark court rulings,” are now demanding changes in dam operations such as “fish ladders, conservation land purchases, increased stream flow and other changes” to help protect and recover salmon runs.
CORPS PAUSES
The Army Corps of Engineers said it is suspending work on an estimated 150 water-related projects so it can re-examine their economic justification, a startling about-face for an agency that for nearly two years — and as recently as last month — has insisted its economic analyses are fundamentally sound. The projects are congressionally approved but not yet under construction. The Corps has 1,400 total projects — harbor deepening, beach replenishment, canal and lock repair — now on the books, but the reviews could nix some of the biggest and most controversial ones, sources say.
“This action is part of a more comprehensive initiative to ensure that corps projects are a sound investment for our nation and are proposed in an environmentally sustainable way,” said Maj. Gen. Robert H. Griffin, the director of civil works. “It is essential that corps projects keep up with the pace of change.” <http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/05/05012002/ap_47078.asp>
FARMED FISH MUST BE TAGGED IN WA
Washington salmon farmers will have to mark their stock under new state rules intended to discern the source of escaped fish. Thousands of non-native Atlantic salmon have escaped in recent years from Canadian and Washington fish farms. So far, no wild runs of Atlantic salmon have been documented in the Pacific Northwest, but if that happens the state rules would require fish farms to bear the costs of eradicating them so they don’t compete with native Pacific salmon. The state-marking requirement appears to be a first in North America and will be accomplished by briefly chilling young fish to give their ear bones a distinct growth pattern.
The Atlantics are raised in net pens that float in coastal waters. During the past decade, more than 900,000 Atlantics reportedly have escaped from Washington and Canadian pens. Cut off from their farm feed, most escaped Atlantics have starved, according to Appleby. But stray fish have been found in more than a dozen Washington streams and more than 75 British Columbia streams. Canadian researcher John Volpe has documented successful Atlantic spawning in three British Columbia streams. The Seattle Times, WorldCatch News Network, 4/2
CANADIAN HATCHERY POLICIES CHALLENGED
Some of Canada’s leading fisheries scientists are recommending “sweeping reforms” after “concluding the survival of wild coho in the Strait of Georgia is threatened by hatchery-reared cohorts” says the Vancouver Sun 3/23. The report challenges “40 years’ worth of scientific assumptions” and recommends that hatchery salmon be treated as “rivals, not complements, to wild populations.”
ALBERTA TO OPEN WETLANDS TO GRAZING IN DROUGHT-STRICKEN AREAS
Alberta’s drought emergency plan will open to cattle grazing most of the province’s wetlands usually reserved for waterfowl. Calgary Herald; April 25
BOTTLED-WATER COMPANIES SPARK FIGHTS OVER ACCESS TO AQUIFERS
Communities across the nation are drawing lines around their springs and wetlands to stave off bottled water companies. Albuquerque Tribune; 4/2 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=1146>
COMPANIES PLEDGE $87 MILLION TO CLEAN MONTANA MINE PIT
A group of mining companies has agreed to pay $87 million to clean toxic water filling Butte’s Berkeley Pit, the remnants of a huge copper mine and the most visible aspect of an even larger Superfund site. Spokesman-Review (AP); Mar. 28
COAL WASTE SPILLS INTO STREAMS IN KENTUCKY, WEST VIRGINIA
Nearly 135,000 gallons of coal waste spilled into eastern Kentucky streams and tributaries after a pipe at a coal processing plant ruptured. Officials said the tarlike coal waste started spilling from the Sidney Coal Co. plant into tributaries of the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River. <http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/04/04112002/ap_46909.asp>
RIPARIAN AREAS: FUNCTIONS AND STRATEGIES FOR MANAGEMENT
The report prepared by the National Research Council discusses how protecting threatened and endangered species, wetlands, water quality and public lands, as well as reducing flood damage, depends on restoration of riparian areas. <http://www.nap.edu/books/0309082951/html/>
PESTICIDES COMPROMISE AMPHIBIANS
Canadian researchers have found that “frogs given trace amounts of DDT and other pesticides experience a near-total collapse in their immune systems” says the Toronto Globe and Mail, 4/24. The scientists said the “work could shed light on the global decline in amphibians,” since compromised immune systems would not leave them strong enough to “survive exposures to viruses and parasites.” Among the pesticides tested in the peer-reviewed study was Malathion, a pesticide widely used for mosquito control in the U.S. and Canada.
EPA COMPLETES SIX-YEAR REVIEW OF EXISTING DRINKING WATER REGULATIONS
EPA has completed a detailed review of 69 existing drinking water standards. Based on that review,the agency is requesting comment on its preliminary decisions to revise the standard for total coliforms and not to revise, at present, the remaining 68 standards for chemical contaminants. Coliform bacteria are indicators of possible microbiological contamination but do not necessarily make people sick. The agency’s revisions to the standard will be designed to better indicate potential risks to public health. For more information visit: <http://www.epa.gov/safewater/>
ECOREGIONAL NUTRIENT CRITERIA DOCUMENTS FOR LAKES & RESERVOIRS
These documents contain EPA’s recommendations to states and authorized tribes for establishing their water quality standards. These recommended criteria are not laws or regulations — they are guidance that states and tribes may use as a starting point for the criteria for their water quality standards.
<http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/criteria/nutrient/ecoregions/lakes/> Ecoregional Nutrient Criteria Documents for RIVERS & STREAMS <http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/criteria/nutrient/guidance/rivers/chapter_1.pdf>
SPENDING ON WATER INFRASTRUCTURE INADEQUATE
Annual spending to maintain and expand water and sewage systems is lagging tens of billions of dollars behind what is needed to keep up with population growth and tightening health and pollution standards, federal environmental officials have found. A draft report by the Environmental Protection Agency says that by 2019, the accumulated gap between actual and necessary investments in these vital, but largely invisible, underpinnings of urbanized America is likely to exceed $650 billion. <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/10/national/10POLL.html?ex=1019446193&ei=1&en=9b0573878c6f5931>
RENO LOOKING TO FIND, STOP SOURCE OF GROUND WATER POLLUTION
Reno-area officials have spent $8 million cleaning 13 square miles of aquifer tainted with solvents, without finding the source or determining whether it continues. Reno Gazette-Journal; 5/1 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=2076>
FISHING RESTRICTIONS
New England’s fishing industry will be substantially scaled back under new federal rules announced Friday. The regulations, which reduce the number of days fishers can work, close key fishing areas, and limit the size of fish that may be caught, were met with dismay by the industry. After more than 400 years of large-scale fishing, the region’s fish stocks bottomed out in 1994, prompting the closing of more than 5,000 square nautical miles of prime fishing spots and reducing the number of days at sea to 50 percent of pre-1994 levels for all vessels, among other regulations. Even fishers agree that some of those measures were necessary to save fish stocks, but now, they argue, species are recovering and regulations should be relaxed, instead of tightened. Conservationists disagree and support the stricter restrictions, pointing out that only one of 18 ground-fish species has fully recovered from overfishing. Overall, the North Atlantic has just one-sixth the number of fish it had a century ago, while fishing is eight times more intensive.
<http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0429/p15s03-wmwo.html>
FRANKENFISH
Meanwhile, in other news about fish, a transgenic version of the North Atlantic salmon is the first genetically engineered animal up for review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use as food. The fish looks more or less like it’s natural cousin, but it grows seven times faster. Scientists created this wonder by including genes from Chinook salmon and ocean pout fish. Aqua Bounty Farms, of Waltham, Mass., hopes to farm and market the Frankensalmon, but environmentalists fear mutant salmon could escape and disrupt the already-threatened wild population. The fish is likely to join the ranks of cows with bovine growth hormone and genetically modified corn and soybeans as watershed species in the battle over bioengineered foods. Maryland and Oregon already have laws regulating transgenic fish, and Alaska and California are considering outright bans. <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2002/04/29/MN155761.DTL>
DWINDLING WATER SUPPLIES ARE THE WORLD’S BIGGEST CHALLENGE
A lack of clean water will be the biggest issue facing the world in the next 50 years, and governments and business are failing to face up to the challenge, says a senior Australian researcher. Graham Harris of the state-funded Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) told an environment conference in Melbourne that business needed to understand its dependence on the environment and create a new economic framework that focused on longer-term returns. <http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/04/04092002/reu_46873.asp>
ESRA GOOD NEWS FOR IMPERILED BIODIVERSITY
Longtime ESA champions, Reps. George Miller (D-CA) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ) have reintroduced the Endangered Species Recovery Act (ESRA) as the positive alternative to current attempts at weakening protection for imperiled species in the name of so-called “reform” says the ESC 4/25. The Endangered Species Coalition enthusiastically supports ESRA because it provides greater incentives for private landowners to protect species, improves the role of sound science in implementing the ESA and focuses on the recovery – not just survival — of protected species.
