COLORADO RIVER INFLOWS
The unregulated inflow to Flaming Gorge Reservoir on the Green River for April through July was 35.6% of average. Combining last year’s figures with this add up to the driest 2 year period on record. Blue Mesa Reservoir inflows for April-July were 72% of average. 120% of average precipitation in the Gunnison Basin for July only produced 51% of average inflow. Navajo Reservoir inflows were 107% of average for April-July. The inflow to Lake Powell for April-July was 56% of average.
COLORADO WATER CONSERVATION BOARD DEVELOPING RULES FOR KAYAK COURSE WATER RIGHTS
SB 01-216 created a new state review of water right applications for whitewater parks. Out of fear that these new instream water rights might interfere with future water development for consumptive water right diversions, traditional water providers encouraged the legislature to pass a statute that would give the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) the authority to review these applications. The CWCB is to submit a recommendation to the water court as to whether the application should be approved, approved with conditions or denied. The CWCB has developed daft rules for requirements of applicants of what information needs to be submitted for review.
[The initial draft rules are very troubling. They go way beyond the scope and intent of the statute. The draft rules require much more information than mentioned in the statute. They also ask the applicant to speculate on what future water development might occur above the stream reach for the whitewater park.]
The CWCB will be trying to finalize new rules before the end of 2001. Several entities and organizations, including High Country Citizens’ Alliance and the Sierra Club, have submitted comments asking the Board to limit the requirements to more closely reflect the intent of the legislation.
A SCAN OF WQ ISSUES
At its annual retreat, the Colorado Water Quality Forum created the following working groups for this coming year: Surface Water Basic Standards Implementation; TMDL/303(d) issues; Stormwater Phase II; Nonpoint Source Funding; Permit Implementation; Ammonia Criteria; and Nutrient Criteria.
Upcoming rulemakings of interest before the WQCC: Basic Standards for Ground Water revisions (10/01); DIMP standards revisions (a by-product of nerve gas production at Rocky Mountain Arsenal) (02/02); Arkansas/Rio Grande Basins water quality standards revisions (7/02).
Upcoming Water Quality Control Commission informational hearings: WQCD Antidegradation Significance Test Guidance; Chatfield Control Regulation triennial review; Bear Creek Control Regulation triennial review; 401 Certification Regulations triennial review; Procedural Rules routine review (all on 9/10/01); Continuing Planning Process regulation routine review (10/01); Regulation Controlling Discharges to Storm Sewers triennial review (10/01); Upper and Lower Colorado Basins water quality standards Issues Scoping Hearing (10/01); Arkansas/Rio Grande Basins water quality standards Issues Formulation Hearing (11/01); Discharge Permit System Regulations routine review (1/02); 2002 Section 305(b) Report (1/02); 2002 Section 303(d) List (3/02); and Sediment Standards Implementation Guidance (4/02).
HIGHLANDS RANCH SEEKING WATER IN PARK COUNTY
Park County is asserting its authority to oversee negotiations between the Highlands Ranch water utility and the owners of the Cline Ranch near Como in Park County for 500 af. Mitigation being offered includes $100,000 to acquire riparian easements, implement a weed control program and groundwater pumping to replenish Tarryall Creek in the fall when natural flows are at their lowest to prevent totally drying up hay meadows.
PLANS FOR RUETER-HESS RESERVOIR PROGRESS
Douglas County is expected to approve the construction of a dam and reservoir one-third the size of Cherry Creek Reservoir (16,200 af). The city of Parker plans to build the reservoir and capture water from Cherry Creek and Newlin Gulch. The dam would be 135 feet high and 5,300 feet long. The Corps review of the plans is expected to be completed this fall.
ANIMAS-LA PLATA
Groundbreaking for construction of Ridges Basin is scheduled for 11/9/01. The House Appropriations Committee has approved $16 million in the 2002 Interior budget for ALP. The Senate Appropriations Committee has not yet considered the funding request.
The chief attorney for the Navajo Nation Council, Steven Boos, resigned effective Sept. 14 so he could move to further his son’s education in Durango.
UPPER COLORADO RIVER RECOVERY PROGRAM
Draft recovery goals will be published in the Federal Register on 9/10. The goals identify site-specific management actions necessary to minimize or remove threats; establish objective, measurable criteria that consider demographic and genetic needs for self-sustaining, viable populations; and provide recovery time estimates. Comments will be accepted for 45 days and must be postmarked by October 24, 2001. A decision on the final goals will be made three to six months after the comment period closes. More information is at mountain-prairie.fws.gov/ea/infopackets
On 8/6, a razorback sucker went through Redlands ladder. That is a first for razorbacks. It was a fish that the Recovery Program had stocked in the Gunnison River at Delta in October 1996. So, sometime in the last 5 years it went downstream over the dam and was now headed back upstream. At the time of stocking the fish was 314 mm and weighed 372 grams, on 8/6 it was 458 mm and 912 grams. Another razorback paseed through the ladder the next day! This fish was originally stocked in the Gunnison River at Delta on June12, 2001. So sometime in the past 3 months it moved downstream 54 miles, over the dam and was now moving back upstream. A third razorback sucker was captured in the fish trap after ascending the Redlands fish ladder on Aug 28. This razorback was stocked as an adult in the Gunnison River near Delta last April. Over 50 pikeminnow have used the ladder since it was completed.
In reply to the August 8 coordinated response from the State of Colorado, Upper Basin Water Users, Western, and CREDA to the Service’s July 17 memorandum to the Management Committee regarding the Gunnison/Colorado flow recommendations, the Service agrees to continue working with minority objectors on outstanding concerns. In addition to making the changes and providing the information indicated in the July 17 memo, the Service will further consider the minority proposals and develop options for addressing the issues. A meeting between the Service and minority objectors will be scheduled for September; interested parties are welcome to attend.
With two escapement studies (Elkhead and Starvation) now proposed, the Program wants to review both to determine if a consistent study approach has been taken or is necessary.
An offer of $470K has been made by the Program to buy out the Thayn Hydropower diversion at Tusher Wash on the Green River. This would eliminate the need to build a fish ladder and the probability of fish being “taken” by the diversion.
A fish screen design has been finalized for the Grand Valley diversion structure.
The first draft water demand projections in the Gunnison River by Reclamation identifies an additional 11,000 af. Arapahoe County has requested that Reclamation modify their assumptions to consider out-of-basin diversions, thus increasing the potential future development to 240,000 acre-feet.
The Service has increased exemptions from separate consultation for new depletions from 3,000 af to 4,500 af. This is based on a determination that the Program is making sufficient progress.
Recovery Implementation Committee meeting has been rescheduled for Wed., October 17 from 9:30 to 3:00p.m., at the Hilton Garden Inn, 16475 E. 40th Circle, Aurora CO. The next meeting of the Management Committee is scheduled for Salt Lake City on 10/30 from 9:20am to 4:30pm.
BINATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
A Binational Symposium on the Colorado River delta is scheduled for 9/11-12 in Mexicali for 300 invited participants from both countries. US and Mexican water and environmental laws will be discussed. Also on the agenda will be presentations on what scientific information has been collected on the condition of the ecosystem in the delta and what additional information is needed to consider restoration efforts needed.
SALTON SEA BIRD DIE-OFF BEGINS EARLY
The USFWS says an early June outbreak of avian botulism “affecting more than 200 endangered brown pelicans” was the “earliest on record” for Southern California’s Salton Sea, reports Greenwire 8/2. Usually the “annual bird die-offs” start in July and go through September, although last year’s outbreak lasted until the end of November. The agency hopes to avoid the massive mortality seen during the 1990s by increased rescue and treatment programs.
WATER NEEDED TO SAVE CO DELTA
A newly released study, supported by scientists in both Mexico and the U.S., calls for an immediate boost in water to “rescue” the Colorado River’s “shriveling delta” says the Wall Street Journal 7/30. The “high-profile study” by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation is the latest in “growing international efforts” to restore the delta’s remaining wetlands and estuaries. Although the proposal has been criticized for relying too much on recycling polluted irrigation water, environmentalists say the measure is a good start but that “much more water would be needed to truly revive the delta.” The report can be found at <www.sonoran.org>
LAWSUIT TIES CO FLOW TO BIO-DIVERSITY
According to conservation groups “as the Colorado River flow to the ocean decreases, so does the ecological diversity” in the mighty river’s delta, says the Yuma Daily Sun 8/25. Because U.S. water diversions are largely responsible, 8 groups, led by the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, have filed a lawsuit against 5 federal agencies charging that they “need to do more to protect listed species and restore the ecosystem as required by the ESA.” According to the Bureau of Reclamation, the plight of imperiled species such as the Colorado Delta clam (see below), totoaba, desert pupfish, Yuma clapper rail, southwestern willow fly-catcher and vaquita porpoise “isn’t their problem.” [This suit has been briefed and is waiting the decision of the judge.]
A CLAM IN DECLINE
The mouth of the Colorado River is the only habitat of a rapidly disappearing clam, according to a new study that could become the newest tool in an effort to win more water for the river’s ailing Mexican delta. The report by University of Arizona professor Karl Flessa and Miguel Agustin Tellez-Duarte, a marine sciences professor at the Autonomous University of Baja California at Ensenada, concluded that the Colorado River delta clam lives only in the area where the river empties into the Gulf of California, between Baja California and mainland Mexico. The study will become the basis of a petition for the clam to be added to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s list of threatened and endangered species, the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity said in a news release.
The Flessa/Tellez-Duarte report confirmed that a clam (bivalve mollusk Mulinia coloradoensis) found at the mouth of the Colorado River in Mexico exists “nowhere else in the world” and is close to extinction because of “drastically reduced flows” into its delta estuary habitat say ESC sources 8/7. The scientific report released by the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife provides strong evidence on the need to protect the species under the ESA. Once so abundant that whole islands and beaches are made up of its shells, U.S dams and water diversions have caused it to decline to the point that “only one tiny population is known to remain.”
LEGISLATION PUTS WATER DEAL ON FAST TRACK
Southern California environmental groups are up in arms over legislation that would by-pass environmental review of a plan to transfer irrigation water from the Imperial Valley to San Diego County says the San Diego Union-Tribune 8/11. The legislation, HR-2764, “declares that the environmental requirements already have been met” and limits lawsuits for the massive water transfer that environmentalists say would promote harmful sprawl and damage the Salton Sea, a “critical stopover for millions of migratory waterfowl” and the endangered brown pelican.
COLORADO RIVER SYMPOSIUM
A series of panel discussions has been organized by the California Water Education Foundation for 9/19-21 at the Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe. (Bishop’s Lodge is where the Colorado River Compact was signed in 1922.) The topics are: Is Consensus just a nine letter work?; Where are we heading with the delta?; Restoring the Salton Sea: Who pays?; Opening the Interstate Water Market/Bank for business; Is enough being done to save endangered species on the river?; Meeting Indian water rights; Dam reoperation and its Impacts; and future trends in the basin.
EGG-SALVAGE SUSTAINS SPECIES
Biologists have embarked on an “egg-salvage” project to help keep New Mexico’s imperiled Rio Grande silvery minnow from extinction says ENN 8/2. To save the minnow’s eggs from floating into “inhospitable” reservoirs where they are eaten by predatory fish, they are being collected and transported to refuges and captive breeding facilities that have “proven instrumental in sustaining the species.” Once a dominant species, “flood-control and river channelization” have so changed the middle Rio Grande that “there is an estimated 99% mortality rate for minnows spawned in the river today.”
NEW MEXICO WATER ADJUDICATIONS
State Engineer Tom Turney says he would like his office to complete the 85% of water rights adjudications within the next 20 years. He says his office will need $170 million to complete the task.
SANTA FE TO USE WATER TO LIMIT GROWTH
The Santa Fe City Council is considering limiting growth by creating an annual water budget — once the year’s allotment has been claimed by developers, no new projects would be approved. “It’s crazy that (in the past) we haven’t considered water when granting development approvals.”– Patti Bushee, Santa Fe city councilwoman, on her proposal to limit growth by restricting the amount of water available to new subdivisions each year. The bill needs some tinkering and some better definitions, but it’s a bold step toward long-term solutions, says the Santa Fe New Mexican; Aug. 6
<http://www.sfnewmexican.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=2172420&BRD=2144&PAG=461&dept_id=367954&rfi=6>
MEXICIAN WATER DELIVERY TO TEXAS HALTED
In March, Mexican President Vicente Fox agreed to start paying back the water deficit Mexico owes Texas on the Rio Grande which has accumulated to 1.3 maf. Water delivery from Mexico to Texas is part of the 1944 Treaty, which also requires the US to deliver 1.5 maf to Mexico from the Colorado River. On 8/6, Judge Javier Sanchez Martinez issued the order postponing repayment of the water debt. The judge’s order came in response to a lawsuit filed by a water district representing farmers from Valle Hermoso to Matamoros because the delivery would seriously affect farming in Tamaulipas.
The Texas Department of Agriculture says 80% of this year’s dry land cotton crop can not be harvested. The TDA has said that without the water delivery, citrus, sugar cane and corn crops are also threatened.
NEW RECLAMATION CHIEF TO STAY AGENCY’S COURSE
The new head of the Bureau of Reclamation promised more efficient but not radically different management of federal dams in the West, but said he has absolutely no interest in breaching Glen Canyon Dam. Salt Lake Tribune; 8/13 <http://www.sltrib.com/08132001/utah/122116.htm>
CHAIRMAN OF FERC RESIGNING
A “Washington Post.Com” article stated the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, who has clashed with Congressional Democrats and California’s governor over the handling of the Western power crisis, is resigning at the end of the August. Mr. Curtis Hebert, a Republican from Mississippi, was named FERC chairman by Bush in January. On August 3, Mr. Hebert’s resignation was submitted in a letter to President Bush delivered to the White House. Ann Womack, White House spokeswoman, was quoted in the article as saying, “the president appreciates Curtis Hebert’s service as chairman of the FERC. He has worked hard to balance the need for just and reasonable rates with the need to encourage adequate new supplies of energy.”
Bush is expected to appoint Mr. Patrick Wood III, an old associate from when Bush was Texas governor, as the commission’s new chairman.
Bush nominated Wood, who had been chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission since 1995, to the FERC earlier this year. The Senate confirmed him May 25. <http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39065-2001Aug6.html>
THE DAY THE EARTH DIDN’T STAND STILL
Water-hungry Los Angeles is pumping so much groundwater that the area is rising and falling each year in tune with the seasons, according to a report published today in the journal Nature. Using global positioning system satellites, a research team from the U.S. Geological Survey calculated that some parts of the L.A. area have been sinking half an inch a year, while others are rising a quarter-inch every year. In some parts, the seasonal difference can be more than 4 inches, rising in the fall and early spring, and falling in the summer. Los Angeles Times, Aug 23 <http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-000068257aug23.story?coll=la%2>
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VERNAL POOL SPECIES TO GET HABITAT PROTECTION
Under a lawsuit settlement the USFWS has agreed to propose critical habitat for 15 endangered and threatened species in California and Oregon “dependent on vernal pool wetlands for their survival” says the agency 6/27. Final designation is to be completed by August 15, 2002 and includes 4 species of freshwater shrimp and 11 listed vernal pool plants. Biologists estimate 75% of the Central Valley vernal pool habitat has already been destroyed. Unlike 95% of CA grasslands which contain mostly introduced species, “vernal pool complexes harbor native California plants.”
IRRIGATORS ORDERED TO PROVIDE WATER TO CA LAKE
Two Klamath Basin irrigation districts that receive their water from reservoirs have been order to “resume water flows to a northern California lake that is home to endangered sucker fish” says OregonLive.com, AP 8/1. The two districts, which have provided irrigation water all summer because they are the only ones not supplied by Upper Klamath Lake, stopped the flow to California’s Tule Lake NWR to save the water in case the drought continued next year.
DIVIDED WATERS
There is little agreement on PG&E’s latest plan to allocate water between Northern California’s Eel and Russian Rivers says the Santa Rosa Press Democrat 8/27. A nearly hundred year old water diversion has “devastated the Eel’s salmon and steelhead runs” but “accounts for most of the Russian’s summer flow.” The Interior Dept. is concerned that the new plan to reduce Eel diversions by about 15% to help restore the fisheries doesn’t go far enough but Russian River water users say that it goes to far and does not guarantee adequate flows in that river.
MONTANA RIVER SUBJECT TO THEFT
Montana’s West Gallatin River has shrunk this summer due to drought — and theft. Illegal use of water is widespread and affecting downstream irrigation farmers and other water rights holders. Billings Gazette (AP); 8/22
IDAHO IRRIGATORS DENIED WATER
An Idaho canal company temporarily shut off water to 500 irrigators, affecting about 60,000 acres of potatoes, sugar beets and grain. Statesman Journal; Aug. 22 <http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/daily/20010822/LocalNews/151352.shtml>
MONTANA RIVER BONE DRY
Montana’s Musselshell River quit flowing, threatening communities that rely on the river for their municipal water. Billings Gazette; Aug. 23
A TRICKLE TO LAUREL
A temporary berm built in the low-flowing Yellowstone River is diverting enough water to keep the town of Laurel, Montana, supplied. Billings Gazette; Aug. 23 <http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?section=local&display=content/local/1laurel.inc>
KLAMATH RIVER NEWS –
o NAS TO REVIEW BI OPS – Interior Secretary Gale Norton wants the National Academy of Sciences to “review the biological rationale behind federal decisions to reserve water in Upper Klamath Lake” to protect endangered and threatened fish says the Oregonian 8/2. The “independent review” comes in the wake of Norton’s order to provide water to irrigators in violation of a non-discretionary ESA biological opinion which “mandated” that any “excess water go instead to national wildlife refuges” which support migratory waterfowl and wintering bald eagles.
o “EXHIBIT A” FOR ESA OVERHAUL – Interior Secretary Norton used an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” to highlight the “plight” of Klamath Basin farmers, who are suffering through the “worst drought to hit the area this century,” as “Exhibit A for why the act [ESA] needs an overhaul” says the San Francisco Chronicle 8/6. The comments came as the “Bush administration seeks to make major changes to the Endangered Species Act,” especially efforts to “revise a key element of the act that allows citizens to sue the federal government to protect imperiled species.” Conservationists counter by pointing out that the “federal government created the crisis by giving too much water to unsustainable farming in the basin in recent years at the expense of salmon and fishermen.”
o GROUPS SUE TO KEEP KLAMATH WATER FOR EAGLES, NOT FARMS – Environmentalists have filed suit to force the Interior Department to save water for a wildlife refuge rather than let Klamath Basin farmers irrigate. AP 8/7, Boulder Daily Camera; 8/8
o WATER TRICKLES INTO KLAMATH REFUGES – A court mediated agreement between irrigators and conservationists will deliver a minimum amount of water to the Klamath Basin national wildlife refuges ” – not enough to offset the ravages of drought but just enough to halt the death of wildlife,” says the Oregonian 8/9. As a result, conservationists put on hold plans to seek an “immediate, temporary restraining order” to stop Interior Secretary Norton from continuing to give water mandated for wildlife to irrigate pastures and hayfields. The water provided to the refuge’s “bird-filled marshes” is less than 10% of what scientists say is needed to “keep nearly 1,000 eagles from dying or suffering from lack of water or food.”
o RANCHERS, WILDLIFE AT RISK IN KLAMATH WATER DECISIONS – Federal managers trying to protect three endangered species in the Klamath Basin are also endangering downstream irrigators and one of the West’s most crucial wildlife refuges. The best look yet at one of the biggest current natural resource clashes in the West.
High Country News; 8/14
o AGENCY CHIEF SAYS KLAMATH WATER WARS WILL SPREAD – The new head of the Bureau of Reclamation said that if the drought persists, the current fight over limited water in Oregon’s Klamath Basin will become a common scenario throughout the West. Idaho Statesman; 8/15
o ELEMENTS OF KLAMATH SETTLEMENT EMERGING: Oregon Senator Ron Weyden has proposed “some elements” to achieve sustainable water use by Klamath agriculture and wildlife says SF Gate, AP 8/14. The plan includes “federal funding for water storage dedicated to agricultural use, improved water delivery, restoration of tribal lands in exchange for water rights and buyouts for distressed sellers.” “Representatives from all the groups seeking long-term solutions, including the Interior Dept.” have joined ongoing mediation where “four major ideas have emerged: Restoring the Klamath reservation to the tribes, buying out farmers, getting farmers off the protected areas and restoring thousands of acres of marsh.”
o KLAMATH EAGLES GET MORE WATER – Under a new deal, irrigators and a Portland-based utility will provide the Lower Klamath Refuge with additional water – the “minimum needed to provide some support and shelter for migratory birds that already are starting to pass through the basin, as well as the 300 to 900 bald eagles” that winter there, says the Oregonian 9/5. The water is about a third of the normal amount and “won’t be enough to restore the damage a lingering drought has caused the wetlands or to support the vast majority of the million-plus birds that usually fill the refuges.”
COOPERATION TRUMPS CONFRONTATION IN WALLA WALLA
Like the Klamath River basin, Washington’s Walla Walla River basin has seen irrigation water shut offs “because there’s too little water for fish and fields both” says the Spokesman Review 8/25. Unlike the Klamath, however, “cooperation so far has trumped confrontation” as “unlikely alliances” were formed to benefit bull trout, steelhead, chinook salmon and farmers. While the Methow Valley’s problems have not been eliminated the cooperative efforts have been a model for sharing scarce water and coming up with solutions that work for fish and people.
RESTORATION RATED X
Portland, Oregon is involved in an “experimental effort” to put “millions of gallons of drinking water back into the lower Bull Run” River in order to “help threatened salmon and steelhead” says the Oregonian 8/28. The experiment is part of a “3-year old regional effort” to “restore fish runs in the entire Sandy River Basin” that will include a habitat conservation plan for Portland to ensure compliance with the Endangered Species Act.
IT’S JUST WATER OVER THE DAM
Responding to pressure from “federal agencies, Northwest tribes and state officials in WA and OR,” the Bonneville Power Administration, which “markets about half the region’s electricity,” said it could “afford to spill water over two federal dams” to help endangered salmon, says the Oregonian. AP 7/25. The spill, which the tribes say is a “pittance” that “falls far short of what is needed,” will “boost the survival of juvenile salmon by 2% to 3% by keeping some from going through the deadly electricity generating turbines.
COLUMBIA RIVER CHINNOOK FRY PERISH
Wildlife officials say an unusually large number of baby fall chinook salmon died in the middle Columbia River this spring because of the combined effects of drought and dam operations. Idaho Falls Post Register (AP); Aug. 23
CAPTIVE BREEDING ONLY HOPE FOR SNAKE RIVER SOCKEYE
Only 21 sockeye salmon have returned to Idaho’s Sawtooth Valley with a “return at levels 10 times below what’s needed for their population to recover” says the Idaho Statesman 8/31. Once the federally listed species returned in “numbers so heavy they colored the shorelines red.” But thanks to dams that cut off their migration routes, the species now survives “only because of a captive-breeding program” which the Idaho Dept. of Fish and Game describes as a “research program not a recovery program.”
YELLOWSTONE’S WHIRLING DISEASE A THREAT AND AN OPPORTUNITY
Much of Yellowstone National Park’s ecosystem relies on native cutthroat trout, and scientists are trying to find a way to protect cutthroat from whirling disease, in what they say is one of the world’s best wilderness labs. Billings Gazette; Aug. 6 <http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?section=local&display=content/local/1fish.inc>
TRADITIONAL WATER LAW IGNORED IN IDAHO’S SNAKE RIVER BASIN
Owners of junior water rights on Idaho’s Snake River Plain are pumping away while senior surface-rights holders must limit their irrigation, a backward priority that probably won’t change anytime soon. Idaho Falls Post-Register (Twin Falls Times News); 8/6 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/pr.snakewater.html>
IDAHO SALMON RECOVERY PACT
Farmers and ranchers in Idaho’s Lemhi valley have agreed with state and federal agencies to participate in “salmon recovery efforts which include renting or buying out some of their irrigation rights” says the Spokane Spokesman-Review 7/19. The $8 million deal culminated a year of negotiations that began last year when Lemhi River – – “home to endangered chinook salmon, bull trout and steelheads – – was dry.”
IDAHO IRRIGATORS TO SELL NEW POWER TO CALIFORNIA
An Idaho irrigation district is reviving 12-year-old plans to generate electricity at a dam near Boise and will sell the power to a California utility. Idaho Statesman; 8/14 <http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/daily/20010814/LocalNews/147894.shtml>
SALMON TAKE A TERN FOR THE WORSE
Northwest salmon in hatcheries and estuaries are testing positive for PCBs and DDT, and researchers at the National Marine Fisheries Service aren’t sure of the source of the pollutants. The chemicals are at levels high enough to harm fish immune systems, but the scientists don’t yet know if they could hurt humans who eat the fish. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials are concerned that the chemicals may be passed on to predators that feed on the salmon.
Cormorants, bald eagles, and Caspian terns in the area have all tested positive for high levels of the toxic compounds. Portland Oregonian 8/31 <http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/front_page/99925893220242139.xml>
ANOTHER PRINCE WILLIAM OIL SPILL
A sunken fishing vessel is leaking diesel oil in what is described as the “biggest spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound since the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster” says Reuters 8/7. The ship contains 35,000 gallons of oil that threatens a “variety of seabirds and other wildlife, including bald eagles, sea otters, sea lions and humpback whales” that use the area and are “considered at risk of contacting the fuel.”
AGRIBUSINESS GEARS UP TO STOP SHINER
A coalition of 26 agribusiness groups are raising “money for a legal fight” to block the designation of 1,148 miles of rivers and streams in TX, OK, KS, and NM as critical habitat for the Arkansas River shiner, says the Dallas Morning News, 7/29. A spokesman for the Texas Farm Bureau called the ESA a “tool of what I’ll call the extreme environmentalists to take away our property rights.” According to the USFWS, “31 lawsuits trying to ensure increased protection for 356 species are pending before the agency” and now the agribusiness interests say they want to try “to beat the environmentalists at their own game.”
ARMY CORPS WOULD EASE WETLANDS RULES
The Army Corps of Engineers is proposing to relax laws protecting wetlands, a move critics say negates one of President Bush’s few environmental pledges. Washington Post; Aug. 9 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50798-2001Aug8.html>
HATCHERY FISH DISEASE VECTOR FOR TOADS?
An upcoming Conservation Biology article finds that a fungal disease spread by hatchery reared fish “may be responsible for a steep decline in toad populations in the Pacific Northwest” says PennLive.com, AP 7/24. The study found hatchery-stocked lakes had a “more virulent strain” of a fungal disease that is a major cause of western toad embryo mortality and “higher toad mortalities” sometimes approaching 90%.
MISSOURI RIVER NEWS –
o CORPS SCRAPS ENDORSING MO RIVER RESTORATION: The Army “has ordered its Corps of Engineers to scrap plans to endorse flow changes in the Missouri River” needed to restore habitat vital to the survival and recovery of endangered species says the St. Louis Post-Dispatch 8/2.
The decision to “present a list of alternatives” instead of the anticipated endorsement is a “setback” for conservationists and the USFWS “which has pushed the Corps for more than a decade to alter the river’s flow.” Although the decision “doesn’t sink the restoration plan” it does open the way for President Bush to “act decisively to prevent flow changes.” <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23426-2001Aug2.html>
o HARD CORPS – The Corps of Engineers has publicly acknowledged that the current system violates the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has said for years that the river must be returned to a more natural flow in the spring to prevent the extinction of the river’s pallid sturgeon, piping plovers, and least terns. The Corps agreed last December. But U.S. President Bush sided with the barge industry and farm interests during the presidential campaign last year, and promised to block a spring rise in the river. The move by the Corps not to endorse a rise enraged USFWS officials and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.); environmentalists suggested they would sue if natural flows weren’t restored. St. Louis Dispatch, 8/2 <http://home.post-dispatch.com/channel\pdweb.nsf/pd/86256A0E0068FE5086>
o ENDANGERED SPECIES WINNERS IN MO RIVER FLOW CHANGES – Release of the Army Corps of Engineers report on altering Missouri River flows reveals that endangered species would be the “biggest winners,” says the Omaha World-Herald 8/31. According to the report, restoring more natural flows would greatly increase sandbar breeding habitat for the piping plover and interior least tern and “pose insignificant flood risks for riverside cities and towns.”
o CORPS ABOUT-FACE QUESTIONED – The Corps is coming under scrutiny for its recent “about-face on a plan to raise and lower the level of water in the Missouri River” to restore habitat for endangered species says the Billings Gazette, AP 8/24. North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan is “demanding” answers on “what was behind” a recent decision to back away from endorsing the restoration alternative and whether the Corps was “caving in” to “political pressure from downstream interests.”
CT ATLANTIC SALMON RETURN LOWEST IN 18 YEARS
In spite of restoration efforts, only 41 adult Atlantic salmon returned to the Connecticut River, the “lowest level in 18 years” says the Boston Globe, AP 7/30.
Since 1967, over $100 million has been spent to restore the river, mostly on “building passageways so salmon can swim past the river’s numerous dams” and fisheries biologists were “shell-shocked” at the small return saying “worldwide stocks of salmon are down virtually everywhere.”
LOW FLOW HITS ATLANTIC SALMON
Endangered wild Atlantic salmon are being hit by a drought that has five of the eight eastern Maine rivers which still support them showing “record low flow rates” says the Portland Press Herald 8/14. The full affect of the dry weather won’t be clear for awhile, but the “last few weeks of August are typically the driest of the summer.” There already have been some reports of “dead juvenile fish” although most salmon seek relief by burrowing under rocks, seeking cool pockets near streams or by remaining in colder seawater.
FEDS OK’D TO DEFEND ATLANTIC SALMON
Conservation groups were dealt a “setback” after a federal appeals court upheld a decision to allow the USFWS and NMFS to defend their “designation of Atlantic salmon in Maine as endangered,” says the Portland Press Herald. 8/25. Conservation groups who litigated to get ESA protection for the Atlantic salmon felt their former adversaries could not “adequately defend” the listing decision which is being challenged by the state of Maine and business groups.
FISH FARMING SPURS CONCERNS
The amount of farmed fish produced worldwide doubled between 1989 and 1998, according to a report released by the Pew Oceans Commission. The report found that one of out every three fish that winds up as someone’s dinner is now farmed. And in the United States, aquaculture provides almost all the catfish and trout eaten and nearly half of all shrimp and salmon. While fish farming helps to meet the nation’s demand for fish, it’s also creating a host of problems, including interbreeding, the spread of disease, pressure on small species that provide fish feed, and the discharge of waste into coastal waters, the report said. Alaska’s abundant wild salmon runs are especially vulnerable because of their proximity to salmon farms in British Columbia and Washington state, state officials and fishing representatives said. From the Anchorage Daily News, 8/1
Other scientific research has found that Atlantic salmon escapees from British Columbia fish farms are “spawning in the province’s streams” says the Bellingham Herald, AP 8/14. According to the Canadian report the farmed fish are “acclimatizing to local conditions and competing for food and space with wild B.C. salmon.” <http://www.pewoceans.org/articles/2001/07/07312001/Report_137.asp>
OLD MCDONALD HAD A FISH
Do you know where your salmon comes from?
by Richard Manning in Books Unbound <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/books020900.stm?source=daily>
COME SHELL OR HIGH WATER
The best way to rid the Great Lakes region of invasive zebra mussels may be to zap them with radio waves, Purdue University researchers told the American Chemical Society at its meeting in Chicago yesterday. The fast-breeding zebra mussels, which were brought to the U.S. in the ballast water of cargo ships, are threatening native aquatic life and clogging pipes at water purification and power plants. The Purdue researchers exposed the pesky mollusks to low-frequency electromagnetic waves that affected their ability to develop a shell, causing them to die within 40 days. The researchers are hopeful that the treatment, which was far less harmful to other organisms, will replace the more toxic chlorine now used to control the mussels. Chicago Sun-Times 8/29 <http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-zebra29.html>
MONTANA, WYOMING SIGN METHANE-WATER AGREEMENT
The governors of Montana and Wyoming have signed a deal that allows Wyoming methane drillers to discharge wastewater into the Powder River while monitoring water quality for Montana irrigators. Billings Gazette; 8/15 <http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?section=local&display=content/local/1water.inc>
RIVERDANCE OF JOY?
EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman gave the go-ahead yesterday to a Clinton-era plan requiring General Electric to spend half a billion dollars to dredge PCB pollution from 40 miles of the Hudson River. Her draft order, which has been sent to New York state for a 30-day review, came after weeks of speculation that the Bush administration might cave to pressure from G.E. and scale back the dredging to a six-mile pilot project. The company has spent millions of dollars trying to convince the EPA and the public that the river is naturally cleaning itself and that dredging now would only make the pollution problem worse. Enviros said last-minute lobbying by Republican Gov. George Pataki (N.Y.) helped to convince Whitman to stick with the Clinton plan. New York Times, Kirk Johnson, 01 Aug 2001 <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/01/nyregion/01DRED.htm>
NAWQA
A revised public home page for the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program went live this week. The revision is the first of several steps intended to evolve a more effective user interface to their expanding website, which contains technical reports, interpretive and policy-related analyses, maps, and a comprehensive database about water quality in approximately 50 regional river basins and ground-water systems.
Comments aimed at further enhancing public access to water-quality information on the web are welcomed. <http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/nawqa_home.html>
TMDL DRAFT COST REPORT
EPA has released the Draft Report on Costs related to the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Program.
The report will be posted on EPA’s website at <www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl> .
There will be a 120-day comment period on the draft cost study.
CLEAN WATER, CLEAR CHOICE
NRDC has recently released a new report that outlines critical clean water choices the Bush Administration will be making within the next six months that are important to environmental and public health. “Clean Water, Clear Choice: Upcoming Bush Administration Decisions on Water Pollution” describes how President Bush has the opportunity to improve water quality and public health through upcoming decisions: on the Nationwide Wetlands Permit program, the definition of “isolated” wetlands and waters, the clean-up of PCBs in the Hudson River, rules to minimize the number of raw sewage discharges, the Total Maximum Daily Load program, and a number of Safe Drinking Water Act issues including arsenic and radon standards, and parasites in small drinking-water systems. Download the report at: <www.nrdc.org> .
BETTER OFF RED THAN DEAD?
The water level of the Dead Sea is dropping by about three feet a year and may go dry by 2050, says Friends of the Earth in the Middle East. The group is sponsoring a photo competition to raise awareness of the plight of the popular tourist attraction, using the catchy tag line, “Let the Dead Sea Live.” Its campaign calls for the U.N. to take an interest in protecting the sea and for neighboring countries to set up a regional plan to manage the sea. The sea’s water sources are being diverted by industry, agriculture, and towns. But Jordan’s water minister, Hazim el-Naser, said he didn’t think a solution (such as pumping water into the Dead Sea from the Red Sea) was likely in the near future. BBC News, Caroline Hawley, 03 Aug 2001 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1472000/1472842.stm>
WATER SHORTAGES SPREAD ACROSS NATION
Growth and drought are creating water shortages from the lush Cascades to Florida, and some companies are saying fresh water will be to this century what oil was to the last one. Deseret News (New York Times); Aug. 12 <http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,295017266,00.html?>
OH BABY, BABY, IT’S A DRY WORLD
Some 450 million people in the world are now confronting water-shortage problems.
That’s grim enough — but experts meeting in Stockholm to discuss water scarcity say the number could grow to 2.7 billion within 25 years.
North Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, and parts of India and China, as well as areas in southern Europe, are most hurt by current shortages. Parts of the U.S., however, aren’t far behind. Warmer temperatures, the loss of wetlands to sprawl, and the growing demands of agriculture are accelerating shortages across the U.S. Major U.S. cities could go dry in 10 to 20 years. Toronto National Post, 8/13 <http://www.nationalpost.com/news/updates/story.html?f=/news/updates/stories/20010813/business-521015.html>
TRACKING ENDOCRINE DISRUPTORS IN DRINKING WATER
In recent years, public attention has been drawn to the discovery that certain chemicals can cause reproductive problems in humans and wildlife species. Called endocrine disruptors by molecular biologists, these substances can mimic or interfere with the body’s hormones and cause problems with reproduction, development and behavior. Their interference with the regulatory apparatus of the body may be the cause of birth defects, low sperm counts, breast cancer, mental impairment and a range of lesser ailments.
National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) of EPA is a leader in management of risks posed by endocrine disruptor chemicals.
NRMRL recently published a guide for the removal of endocrine disruptors as part of drinking water treatment at municipal and small-community plants. Chemicals of concern that may be present in sources of drinking water include substances such as pesticides, surfactants, plasticizers, and organohalogens such as PCBs and dioxin. The guide is intended primarily for drinking water plant operators.
Many of these chemicals have also been detected in sewage treatment plants, combustion processes, sediments, soils, concentrated feed-lot operations and consumer products.
Removal of Endocrine Disruptor Chemicals Using Drinking Water Treatment Processes, EPA/625/R-00/015, can be viewed and downloaded at <http://epa.gov/ORD/NRMRL/Pubs/2001/edc/625R00015.htm> or ordered at 1-800-490-9198.
B.C. SMELTER ADMITS DUMPING TOXIN INTO COLUMBIA, TOO
A spokesman for a smelter in Trail, B.C., who recently admitted workers had been exposed to dangerous levels of thallium, has now disclosed that the company dumped about a ton of the toxic metal into the Columbia River. Globe and Mail; Sept. 7 <http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/RTGAMArticleHTMLTemplate/C/20010907/wxsmelt?hub=homeBN&tf=tgam/realtime/fullstory.html&cf=tgam/realtime/config-neutral&vg=BigAdVariableGenerator&slug=wxsmelt&date=20010907&archive=RTGAM&site=Front&ad_page_name=breakingn>
COLORADO RIPARIAN ASSOCIATION (CRA) CONFERENCE
The Colorado Riparian Association is a group of landowners, resource managers, organizations, and interested people that promote awareness of the values and long-term benefits of proper management of Colorado’s riparian areas. The theme of this year’s conference is “Impacts of Growth and Development on Riparian Areas”. It will be held at the Ramada Inn in Glenwood Springs from October 3 – 5 (Wednesday afternoon until Friday noon). There will be field trips on Wednesday afternoon and Friday morning, and presentations on Thursday, followed by an evening banquet. For more information call Alan Carpenter, 2941 20th Street, Boulder, CO 80304 at 303 443-8094 or visit the CRA web site at <www.coloradoriparian.org>