PRICE-STUBB DAM DECOMMISSION IN DOUBT
On 9/13, FERC issued an order approving the application for the Jacobson Hydro No. 1 Project, and lifted the stay of the license order. This gives Jacobson until 1/13/02, to begin construction of the project. The project’s financial feasibility is in question, and FERC is requiring the licensee to submit a project financing plan for FERC approval prior to any ground disturbance, to ensure financing to complete construction. If the hydropower facility is built on the Price-Stubb dam, a fish ladder will have to be built around the dam near Grand Junction instead of breaching the dam to help expand habitat for endangered fish. Construction of the ladder is tentatively scheduled for 2003-2004.
ANIMAS-LA PLATA
Negotiations between Reclamation and the Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority (WRPDA) began on 9/20. The purpose of these negotiations is to amend the 6/30/86 Cost Sharing Agreement. On 11/10/89, the WRPDA created an escrow to fund Colorado’s share of the cost of the ALP project. The Cost Sharing Agreement identifies the amount of construction costs the Authority will pay the Federal Government and provide for operation and maintenance of the project for storage and delivery of project water. Copies of the proposed contracts can be obtained at: <http://www.uc.usbr.gov/progact/animas/index.html> <http://www.uc.usbr.gov/progact/animas/pdfs/agreement_ColUte.pdf> The Authority will pay $7.3 million, and save roughly $2.5 million by paying early. The State of Colorado could pay $23.9 million up front – nearly 11 percent of the total cost of the project – but has no plans to do so. Instead, the State may decide to purchase part of the project at a higher cost once it is under construction
The San Juan Water Commission plans to pay $6.9 million before construction begins, and will also save about $2.5 million for its share of the project. The La Plata County Conservancy of New Mexico has not indicated a desire to pay up front. According to the amended cost-sharing agreement, the Conservancy District would have to pay $3.6 million – or 1.6 percent of the total cost.
STREAM RESTORATION
The US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 8 is sponsoring a STREAM CORRIDOR RESTORATION; Principles, Processes, and Practices training from October 16-18 at the EPA Conference Center (999 18th Street Denver, CO). There are a limited number of no-cost openings in the course for those interested in attending. For further information contact Chris Rowe at 303-291-7437 or at <cwa@coloradowater.org> . To register for the course contact: Stacey Eriksen USEPA 303-312-6692
TERRORISM/HYDROPOWER
Security at federal dams across the nation have been increased in response to the terrorist attacks in New York. Hoover Dam Manager Gary Bryant said, “When we heard about it we cut off all traffic across the dam and isolated the dam about 10 miles on each side.” Highway 93 across the dam is a major interstate route between Phoenix, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada. While later reopened, it remained closed to commercial traffic. Hoover Dam is considered critical infrastructure and its loss would be catastrophic, but Bryant observed, “If an airplane hit, it wouldn’t do a hell of a lot. It might leave a black mark.” All Bureau dams, powerplants and offices remained in operation, but nonessential services have been sharply curtailed. Visitor centers at Hoover, Glen Canyon and Grand Coulee dams have been closed until further notice for “the safety of the public.” Both the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation also canceled tours and took other security measures. Reclamation Commissioner John Keyes concluded, “We join all of America in reaching out to the victims and their families.” <http://www.trilocal.com/%7Eheadwaters/pr.dams.html>
UTAH BOOSTS SECURITY AT DAMS, WATER PLANTS
Utah water officials say their facilities are not so tempting a target as big federal dams, but they’d be foolish not to take extra security measures. Deseret News; Sept. 26 <http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,315009542,00.html?>
GCI ANNUAL CONFERENCE
The Glen Canyon Institute will be holding its annual meeting in Salt Lake City 10/11-13. The conference will commence with a Paul Winter Benefit Concert on 10/11, followed by a dinner and silent auction benefit. Saturday will be filled with panel discussions on dams and rivers. The event will conclude with a keynote speech by Dave Foreman, The River Wild.
DROUGHT IS DRAINING ARIZONA RESERVOIRS
Two record dry years in the Colorado River headwaters and California’s insatiable needs have drawn down Lake Mead 28 feet and Lake Powell 35 feet in the past two years. Arizona Republic; Sept. 25
BROKEN PROMISE LANDS USFWS IN COURT
New Mexico’s Forest Guardians is hauling the USFWS back into court after the agency failed to honor a legal settlement to keep enough water in the lower Pecos River to “sustain” the threatened bluntnose shiner says the Santa Fe New Mexican 9/26. The group charges that the deal to ensure minimum flows was “insincere” because the agency “looked at the water picture and knew they were unable to deliver on that promise.” Forest Guardians contend that the ESA requires the agency to “manage water works on the river to keep fish and other animals alive.”
WATERSHED BILL
H.R. 325 and its Senate companion bill are called the Fishable Waters Act of 2001. It amends the Clean Water Act to permit states to designate watershed councils to carry out fisheries habitat protection and restoration plans. You can find more details on the bill at <http://thomas.loc.gov> by typing in the bill number.
EX-CHIEF SAYS WATER WILL BE FOREST’S MOST PRECIOUS PRODUCT
Water will be the West’s most valuable commodity in the coming century, and most of that water is runoff from the third of the country that’s forested, according to the former chief of the Forest Service. “If we treated water as a commodity, like gold or silver or timber, its value would be staggering.” — Mike Dombeck, former Forest Service chief, on what he calls the conservation issue of the 21st century. Missoulian, Sept. 28 <http://www.missoulian.com/display/inn_news/news11.txt>
UPPER COLORADO RIVER FISH RECOVERY
Recovery goals for the four endangered fish in the Upper Colorado River Basin can be found at: <http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/crrip/rg.htm> Comments are due by 10/25.
The FWS continues to work with WAPA, CREDA, Water Users, and Colorado to address minority concerns regarding flow recommendations for the Colorado and Gunnison rivers. While there still are several significant unresolved issues, the FWS believes they can be resolved in a timely manner. However, program participants who approved the flow recommendations as drafted are concerned that the FWS will go too far to accommodate the minority.
The Biology Committee rejected two reports evaluating contaminant impacts on razorback suckers held in flooded bottomland sites near Grand Junction, Colorado 1996 and 1997. Committee members expressed continued serious concern about the validity of the conclusions and recommendations, which are not supported by the data. The Program Director’s office will send the author a letter explaining the Committee’s decision and noting that these should not be cited as Recovery Program reports.
Gunnison River temperature data collection analysis indicates that a temperature control device could warm temperatures downstream. Blue Mesa likely would be the best place to put a temperature control device. The CWCB doesn’t want to proceed with this before the Aspinall flow recommendations and the National Park Service reserved water right are settled.
WATER GRAB PROTECTION QUESTIONED
Environmentalists are worried that safeguards designed to “protect underground water in a fragile area of the Mojave Desert” are inadequate says SF Gate, AP 9/29. Under the plan “billions of gallons of Colorado River water” would be stored in the aquifer and used to “avoid water shortages in heavily populated areas of Southern California.” An environmental report outlines monitoring and other measures to “avoid damage to the ecosystem” but conservationists fear that the “aquifer could be drained enough during dry years to threaten the habitats of bighorn sheep and desert tortoises.”
MISSING WATER
The Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security has released Missing Water: The Uses and Flows of Water in the Colorado River Delta Region. Missing Water describes the fate of the millions of acre-feet of water diverted from the Colorado River at and below Imperial Dam, and the total inflows to and outflows from the Colorado River delta region more generally. The study period examines the flows and uses of water in the years 1991-1998, divided into Flood and Non-Flood years to reflect the tremendous variability of mainstem Colorado River flows.
Missing Water compiles flow data along the mainstem and along diversions within the delta region, the first time such data has been compiled for the region as a whole. The study also reports consumptive uses of water in the agricultural and urban sectors, and estimates such use by the environment. The report may be downloaded from the Pacific Institute website, at <www.pacinst.org>
FISH HEALTH SURVEY
An extensive national database outlining the distribution of disease-associated pathogens in America’s wild and free-ranging fish populations — viewed as critical to fishery management decisions throughout the United States — was unveiled by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Scientists said it points to “a relatively healthy picture.”
The National Wild Fish Health Survey is the first effort to develop a readily accessible, reliable and scientifically-sound database that documents the national distribution of specific pathogens (organisms capable of causing disease) in free-ranging fish. The project was prompted in 1996, in part, when whirling disease began killing trout in Montana and Colorado. Whirling disease has also been found in trout populations in 20 other states. The survey can be found at <http://wildfishsurvey.fws.gov>
COURT RULING PUTS ALL SALMON PROTECTIONS AT RISK
In a decision that could undermine protections for salmon throughout the West, U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan on Wednesday ordered that Oregon coastal coho salmon no longer be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Hogan said federal biologists were wrong to count only wild fish and not the more numerous hatchery-born coho when it decided to list the fish for protection. Bill Moshofsky, executive director of an Oregon property rights group, said, “It’s what we’ve been saying all along: Hatchery fish and wild fish are the same.” The ruling jeopardizes nearly two dozen listings of salmon and steelhead made by the National Marine Fisheries Service since 1991. Some Idaho conservationists and outfitters worry that an Oregon case may lead to protection of hatchery salmon in Idaho. NMFS has not yet decided whether to appeal the case. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, AP, 9/14 <http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/38923_fishruling17.shtml> <http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=091601&ID=s1024484&cat=section.regional>
OREGON URGES APPEAL OF SALMON DELISTING
Oregon’s Gov. Kitzhaber is urging the federal government to appeal a recent court ruling that “threw out ESA protection for Oregon coastal coho salmon,” says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 9/22. In a letter to Commerce Secretary Evans, the governor said he was “very concerned” that this ruling would lead to the “use of hatcheries to rebuild salmon runs while abandoning efforts to restore and protect the health of watersheds.”
SUCKER COULD SAVE TROUT RIVER
Sportsmen and conservationists are finding that “what’s good for the sucker is good for trout” says the NY Times 9/4. Because of its federal protection, the “homely” Santa Ana sucker could be the key “tool” for saving “one of the few rivers for wild trout in Southern California, the West Fork of the San Gabriel River.” Since its April 2000 listing federal, state and local agencies have been developing a plan to protect and restore the remaining habitat of the sucker and other fish, such as trout, that need “steady flows of cool water year-round.”
CALFED FUNDING PROPOSED
In July the Senate approved a fiscal 2002 energy and water appropriations bill that includes $40 million for projects related to the CALFED plan. The appropriations bill’s CALFED items include $5 million for preconstruction work on Shasta Dam, near Redding, and $1 million for preconstruction at Los Vaqueros Reservoir south of Sacramento. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) welcomed the appropriators’ action, but her CALFED authorization bill wasn’t universally welcomed at the water and power panel hearing. Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton said the Bush administration has “significant concerns” about the measure’s cost-sharing provision, open-ended funding authorizations and accelerated project approvals. The approval provisions were also criticized by the political left. Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative George Miller, both California Democrats, believe that the bill takes away too much congressional oversight over CALFED components.
Feinstein said the CALFED plan is estimated to cost $8 billion to $12 billion. Her legislation would authorize $3 billion in federal funds over seven years toward that total. About $1 billion would go for ecosystem restoration. Her proposal also aims to improve the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta ecosystem by restoring tributaries and other habitat and removing dams that hamper migrating fish. But Feinstein believes that California’s water problems can’t be solved without additional storage. Her measure seeks to add to water supply, in part by expediting reviews of projects to raise Shasta Dam, expanding Los Vaqueros Reservoir and establishing new storage in the Delta. Engineering News-Record, 7/30
DEVELOPER WANTS TO SELL HIS WATER & HAVE IT TOO
A Nevada lawyer and lobbyist wants the state to allow him to pump enough water from the Coyote Springs Valley aquifer to support a “rural village” of 80,000 people. He has already sold some of the water rights from that land to Las Vegas for $25 million, says SF Gate, AP 9/3. According to the Sierra Club, the development would be “immense” even by Las Vegas standards, include 6 to 10 golf courses, cover an area 13 miles long by 5 miles wide and “destroy habitat for a variety of species, including the desert tortoise.”
KLAMATH TRIBES BACK ESA
The Klamath Basin’s Native American tribes have steadfastly supported ESA-based restrictions on the amount of water available for irrigation as the best way to “undo the damage of the past 100 years” says the L.A. Times 9/10. For the tribes the ESA is an indicator, like a gas gauge, “You can throw it away but that won’t fill up the tank. It won’t restore a once-thriving system of lakes, marshes and rivers that has for a century been drained, dammed and diverted for irrigation and flood control.” The farmer’s feelings about losing their irrigation water is however, “painfully familiar” to them since that same “federal water project on which the farms depend helped destroy their way of life.”
SNAKE, COLUMBIA RIVER MANAGEMENT FAILING
A new report from American Rivers finds federal dam management on the Columbia and Snake Rivers is “failing to meet federal standards” for water quality and temperature in violation of the CWA and ESA says ENS 9/7. In the first year of the new salmon recovery plan “federal dam managers have missed their flow and temperature targets by the widest margin ever.” For more <http://www.americanrivers.org>
PRESSURE ON WHITE HOUSE ON SNAKE DAMS
Legislation mandating contingency plans for removal of the four hydroelectric dams on the lower Snake River was introduced in late July, partly to pressure the White House to follow the salmon recovery plan finalized last December. The Army Corps of Engineers spent several years and millions of dollars developing that plan and looked at the effect of dam removal on transportation, energy, pollution and other issues in the Northwest. The bill moves the ball by directing another agency to plan for dam removal and mitigating the lost benefits, backers say. The dams – Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite – were built by the Corps in the 1960’s and 70’s. Since then, several types of Snake River salmon and trout have been listed under the Endangered Species Act, and environmentalists especially have blamed the dams for plummeting fish numbers. The December Corps recovery plan calls for habitat improvements, changes in dam operations and other efforts less drastic than dam breaching. Highly skeptical of the plan, environmentalists say its only chance of success is full funding and support by relevant federal and state agencies. Greenwire, 7/20
LOW WATER CAUSES PROBLEMS FOR MIGRATING FISH
Diverted from a ladder by low water problems, thousands of fish have been congregating at the bottom of the Tumwater Dam on the Wenatchee River, unable or unwilling to pass by. Thousands of fish – sockeye salmon, endangered spring chinook and steelhead, and summer chinook – were not using the fish ladder and collecting at the bottom of the dam near Leavenworth. Perry Harvester works for the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife in Yakima and is a coordinator for managing the effects of the state’s 2001 drought. He says to blame it, at least in part, on some devices called energy dissipators, installed at the dam to alter water currents and improve the movement of fish toward the ladder. “The original intent was good,” Harvester said. However, “during drought, (the dissipators) have the opposite effect – fish are attracted to the dam, rather than the ladder,” he said. “Significant numbers of fish were visibly held up.” So fish managers started making some changes, and fish passage went from 175 to 1,300 daily afterward. The Associated Press State & Local Wire, 8/3
SEATTLE TO CONSERVE WATER FOR SALMON
The Seattle City Council is about to adopt a “water-conservation ordinance” which would “gradually set aside an environmental block of water to protect fish, starting with 2 million gallons per day this year and topping out at 12 million gallons per day in 2015.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer 9/19. The ordinance avoids a potentially ugly battle between two water-conservation ballot initiatives, one of which would have “raised rates for top users to pay” for the water provided to imperiled salmon.
WASHINGTON DROUGHT EFFECTS MAY LAST FOR YEARS
Washington is closing out a year of a drought emergency with many rivers at record low flows, and officials question whether they can recover even with normal precipitation. Idaho Falls Post-Register (AP); Sept. 30
MONEY ISN’T ENOUGH FOR YAKIMA BASIN
A new study has found that the $22 million spent under a federal program to help head off conflicts between protection of ESA listed steelhead, bull trout and farmers in Washington’s Yakima River Basin “hasn’t done enough to prevent future irrigation cutoffs,” says the Olympian, AP 10/2. According to the study, the project lacks “well-defined goals” and recommends “improved, enforceable,” actions which can “contribute to species recovery while helping to prevent the type of litigation and conflict that has recently occurred in the Klamath.”
NAS EMPOWERED TO REVIEW KLAMATH BI OPS
Interior Secretary Norton has called on the National Academy of Sciences to do an independent review of the “scientific and technical information” related to the habitat needs of the three listed species of Klamath Basin fish says the L.A. Times 10/3. The information was the basis for preventing irrigators from jeopardizing the survival of the fish by removing too much water from Upper Klamath Lake. Fishermen and environmentalists “welcomed the academy’s review” saying that it “will demonstrate what we all know: Fish need water to exist.”
CANADA LOOKING AT HYDROPOWER EXPANSION
Columbia River Basin power producers are expanding, or plan to expand soon, generating capacity at four dams on the Kootenay and Pend Oreille rivers. The United States has 30,000 megawatts of undeveloped hydropower capacity at 5,677 sites, according to a 1998 report by the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Their Hydropower Resource Assessment (available on-line at <http://hydropower.inel.gov)> gives a state-by-state listing of sites that were investigated. Environmentalists who have been focusing on the need to remove or reoperate some of the nations dams are uneasy about new proposals for boosting hydropower. Brett Swift, of American Rivers, offers another proposal, “We need to focus on new, renewable sources such as wind power. We also need to take full advantage of energy efficiency savings.” The Spokesman-Review, 7/29
TRIBAL WATER SETTLEMENT
After over four years of negotiations, the Montana Water Court approved the Fort Peck Compact. Of the more than 6,200 affected water users, only three objected, an outcome that would have been impossible in court. Consensus has now been reached on issues that have been fought over for more than 100 years. The Compact successfully quantifies tribal water rights specifying the amount that could come from both surface and ground water, and completes Montana’s comprehensive water right adjudication. The Compact has been ratified by the Montana Legislature and the Fort Peck Tribal Executive Board, and approved by the Governor and the United States Department’s of Justice and the Interior. The decision formally voices Montana’s position that the Winters Doctrine applies to ground water as well as surface water. Though wasteful uses of water are prohibited, the compact gives the Assiniboine and Souix Tribes the right to use reserved water without regard to whether such a use is ‘beneficial’ under Montana state law. Even off-reservation diversions are permitted where such are needed to enable the tribes to obtain their reserved amount.
TOXINS CONTAMINATE NORTHWEST SALMON
National Marine Fisheries Service testing of Pacific Northwest hatchery and wild salmon has found “high levels of toxicants” such as PCBs and DDT says the Seattle Times, AP 9/1. Scientist are puzzled over where the toxins, many of which were “banned years ago,” are coming from. They are worry that the concentrations which are “high enough to damage fish immune systems” are poisoning predators that feed on them such as cormorants, bald eagles and Caspian terns which have also “tested positive for high levels of the compounds.”
FARMED SALMON DESTROYED TO STOP CONTAGION
Over 700,000 farm-raised salmon have been destroyed in an effort to stop a fatal virus from spreading to other aquaculture operations and the “dwindling number” of endangered wild Atlantic salmon says the Boston Globe, AP 9/6. With only 300 of the federally listed wild salmon returning to Maine’s rivers, the USFWS says the close proximity of the fish farms makes the epidemic “potentially a very big threat to our salmon.”
SHAD RETURN TO EAST COAST RIVERS
Dam removal and hatchery programs, stricter pollution controls, construction of fish passage systems, and fishery restrictions in the Atlantic are all helping the Shad. And nowhere is the comeback more convincing than in Pennsylvania. In the past few years, on the Susquehanna, Juniata, Delaware, Schuylkill and Lehigh rivers, shad are again darting upstream, mating – and then usually dying – in places they haven’t haunted in years. The fish are making similar returns to rivers in New England and in other states that include Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina. In Pennsylvania, the state Fish and Boat Commission has driven the restoration effort, removing 60 dams in the past six years and releasing millions of hatchery-raised shad “fry” to ensure populations can rebound. There is clear evidence shad are coming back. The Associated Press State & Local Wire, 8/13
CORAL REEFS ARE DYING FASTER THAN THOUGHT
The world’s coral reefs are dying faster and cover an area smaller than researchers previously thought, according to a study released by the U.N. Environment Programme. The UNEP report estimates that almost 60 percent of the reefs are under threat from human activities. For example, some Asian fishers use dynamite or cyanide to catch fish that live in the reefs; nutrient-rich runoff breeds algae, which smothers coral; and rising ocean temperatures from global warming cause bleaching, which can kill coral. In the first worldwide mapping of the reefs, UNEP found that the reefs cover between one-tenth and half of the area previously thought. The agency said 97 percent of reefs were threatened in Thailand and the Philippines, while in Indonesia, 82 percent were at risk. South Africa Independent, Reuters, 9/11 <http://www.iol.co.za/html/frame_news.php?click_id=143&art_id=qw100021> 0503681B251
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1535000/1535383.stm>
WADING TO EXHALE
In a heretofore undocumented ecological process, the Great Lakes are purifying themselves by “exhaling” decades-old toxic chemicals, according to a study by the Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network. Lake Ontario alone released nearly two tons of now-banned PCBs between 1992 and 1996; together, the five lakes eliminated 10 tons of PCBs and close to four tons of the pesticide Dieldren, also banned. The researchers describe the finding as a happy surprise — the lakes are cleansing themselves — and say the evaporation of chemicals is not a public health concern. However, in bleaker news, an unrelated bi-national “State of the Great Lakes” report released last week says that thousands of toxic chemicals continue to enter the lakes via rain, snow, fog, dust, and polluted air. Ottawa Citizen, 9/28/01 <http://www.canada.com/ottawa/story.asp?id=7B399FFB-2A3C-4BC4-80DC-34> 858F732AC7
ENVIROS SAY POWER COMPANY BUYS OFF LOCALS IN UGANDA
AES Corp. has struck a $500 million dollar deal with Uganda to build a dam near Bujagali Falls on the Nile River, but construction on the site is still on hold. The Virginia-based company said it didn’t expect to encounter so much opposition from locals, whose lives and customs revolve around the river. AES has since promised to work with the people who live along the river to relocate the dwelling places of ancestors and traditional spirits, and conduct the appropriate ceremonies. Environmentalists, rafting companies, and other opponents of the massive dam accuse AES of foisting its plans on the locals. “This company is exploiting people’s poverty by buying them off,” says Martin Musumba, founder of Save the Bujagali Crusade. Fewer than 5 percent of the country’s 22 million residents have electricity, but the dam won’t do much to change that, because little infrastructure exists in the country to deliver power to remote areas. New York Times, 9/13 <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/13/international/africa/13NILE.html>
KUWAIT SUFFERS FROM MONTH OF FISH KILLS
About 2,000 tons of dead fish have washed ashore in Kuwait in the past month — a number equivalent to the amount of fish eaten over four years in the country (and Kuwaitis like a good piece of fish on the dinner table). No dead fish have been found elsewhere in the Gulf, leading experts to believe that the cause of the deaths originates in Kuwait and isn’t natural. Under public pressure, the government has banned fishing. Some experts are blaming raw sewage being pumped into the Gulf for the deaths, while others are pointing to runoff from the oil industry. South Africa Independent, Reuters, 9/12 <http://www.iol.co.za/html/frame_news.php?click_id=143&art_id=qw100029> 246360B251
AYATOLLAH YOU SO
Iran is in the midst of its worst drought in 30 years, heightening problems caused by poor water management, climate change, and rapid population growth. The country’s largest body of freshwater, Lake Hamoun, is now desert and 100 nearby villages are disappearing beneath sand. Drinking water is being rationed in more than 30 cities, including Tehran. Last year, with its crops failing, Iran became the world’s largest importer of wheat. Inefficient water use in the country is part of the problem. About 70 percent of water used for irrigation is wasted. And in recent times, per capita water use in Tehran has been 63 gallons a day, compared to about 32 gallons in Western Europe, according to the U.N. New York Times, 9/18 <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/18/international/middleeast/18IRAN.html>
VIETNAMESE IN SEA OF EXTINCTION
Vietnam has reported that 135 marine species off its coast are in “danger of extinction” says SF Gate, AP 9/17. The Ministry of Fisheries says that due to overfishing and pollution the “number of endangered species is nine times larger now than in 1989, when only 15 sea species were threatened with extinction.”
SCHREGARDUS BOWS OUT
With his nomination hopelessly blocked, former Ohio environmental official Donald R. Schregardus yesterday withdrew his name from consideration to head the Environmental Protection Agency’s enforcement office. Environmentalists said that the administration had been careless in selecting Schregardus for the important enforcement post by overlooking numerous signs of his troubled stewardship in Ohio. Schregardus is the first Bush nominee for an environmental post not to make the grade.
ARSENIC STUDY SUPPORTS TOUGHER LIMITS
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has found that the standard for arsenic levels in drinking water should be at least as tough as the one set by the Clinton administration and then suspended by the Bush administration. Former President Clinton ordered the level to be no higher than 10 parts per billion (ppb) by 2006, the same standard set by the World Health Organization and many European countries. President Bush cast aside the standard in March. The academy report concludes, however, that even at 3 ppb, the risk of bladder and lung cancer from arsenic is between four and 10 deaths per 10,000 people. The U.S. EPA’s maximum acceptable level of risk for the past two decades for drinking water contaminants has been one death in 10,000. Officials said that EPA head Christie Todd Whitman would now go with a standard at least as stringent as Clinton’s. Washington Post, 9/11 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6816-2001Sep10.html>
EPA SUPPORTS TMDLS
EPA officials are poised to offer a wholesale endorsement of efforts by state officials to set strict discharge limits for nonpoint sources of pollution under the Clean Water Act. Sources close to the issue say that a recently completed guidance from EPA is proof that the agency is in favor of TMDLs as the way to control nonpoint pollution. The so-called “section 319” guidance will offer $225 to $235 million in grants to control nonpoint pollution, depending on EPA’s fiscal year 2002 budget, and direction for state officials on applying for the funding.
According to a draft copy of the document, “This guidance is intended to strengthen the link between the section 319 NPS [nonpoint source] program and the development and implementation of NPS TMDLs and to promote the use of section 319 dollars to assist in the development and implementation of TMDLs.” The guidance from EPA to state officials, will likely frustrate members of the farming community and certain types of industry sectors that have continually challenged EPA’s ability to force states to set discharge limits for nonpoint sources of pollution.
RIVER CONSERVATION EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE
Geography Action! Rivers 2001 Geography Action! is an annual conservation and awareness program, sponsored by the National Geographic Society, designed to educate and excite people about our natural, cultural, and historic treasures. This year’s theme is Rivers – and includes online resources for K-12 educators and students. Activity Topics: Using our Rivers, Changing our Rivers, and Saving our Rivers.
<http://www.nationalgeographic.com/education/geographyaction/ga17.html>