> Subject: Missouri River stories
> Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 08:49:19 -0500
>
> Things are still happening fast on the Missouri
> River, but the good news is
> that we at least are getting a few days of low flows
> this summer.  The three
> stories below give some insight as to what is going
> on.  Thought you all
> might find them interesting.
>
> Corps lowers Missouri River level to aid endangered
> species
> By BILL LAMBRECHT
> 08/12/2003
>
> WASHINGTON - After a month-long court battle, the
> Army Corps of Engineers
> dramatically lowered the water in the Missouri River
> on Tuesday under an
> injunction aimed at helping endangered species.
>
> By Tuesday, the corps had diminished the release of
> water into the lower
> river from Gavins Point Dam outside Yankton, S.D.,
> to 22,800 cubic feet per
> second en route to a prescribed level of 21,000. As
> recently as Sunday
> night, it had flowed at more than 26,000.
>
> The corps was ordered on July 12 by a federal judge
> in Washington to lower
> the water for a 30-day period. But the corps defied
> the injunction until
> this week and planned to begin raising the water
> level by Friday after less
> than three days of low flow.
>
> In the portion of the river near St. Louis, the
> reduced flow means that the
> river will plunge several feet next week and then
> gradually rise again in
> less than three days. Most barge traffic will be
> shut down during that time.
>
> The lower water marks a temporary end to a legal
> battle that was waged in
> six courts since early July. Conservation groups
> sought the injunction to
> force the corps to abide by a Fish and Wildlife
> Service recommendation to
> help restore endangered species.
>
> David Hayes, lead counsel for American Rivers,
> Environmental Defense and the
> alliance of advocacy groups, pronounced Tuesday "a
> very significant day."
>
> "The flows in the Missouri will go down today. This
> is despite the ferocious
> efforts of the corps to avoid complying with the
> court orders to reduce the
> flow."
>
> The corps initially refused the order on the grounds
> that it was bound by a
> conflicting injunction. That conflicting order later
> was found not to be in
> effect.
>
> Hayes said the court order established an important
> precedent in forcing the
> corps to comply with the Endangered Species Act.
>
> But he noted that a ruling expected later this month
> by the 8th U.S. Circuit
> Court of Appeals in St. Louis also could be
> significant in determining how
> far the corps must go to protect endangered species
> while operating the
> river.
>
> For now, the temporary lower flow will be beneficial
> to the protected birds
> by opening sandbars and thus giving them more room
> to forage for food and
> escape predators.
>
> But conservation groups warned Tuesday that raising
> the water too swiftly
> could trap chicks on the sandbars and perhaps even
> wash away nests.
>
> On Friday morning, corps workers planned to fan out
> on a portion of the
> river between Nebraska and South Dakota near the dam
> to watch over two nests
> of the least tern with unhatched eggs and about 30
> tern and piping plover
> chicks that have been spotted, said Casey Kruse,
> chief of threatened and
> endangered species in the corps' Omaha District.
>
> "We don't expect there to be a significant number of
> birds faced with that
> situation, but we'll be there monitoring," he said,
> referring to threats
> from high water.
>
> The court battle arose because of concerns about
> declining populations of
> the tern and plovers, which the corps monitors
> closely.
>
> Kruse said that along the entire river, which
> stretches to Montana, the two
> birds had a good year of reproduction. About 1,300
> adult piping plovers and
> 735 adult least terns were spotted, a record.
>
> But Kruse said that on the stretch of river south of
> Gavins Point Dam, least
> tern reproduction fell slightly short of the levels
> needed to sustain the
> population.
>
> On the 59-mile stretch of river most critical to the
> birds, only 15 nesting
> areas remain, he said. On that stretch of river,
> corps officials counted 364
> terns this year.
>
> But Kruse said that this year marked another in a
> trend of insufficient
> breeding by the terns, which are categorized as
> endangered. He said that
> lack of habitat is the culprit, but he also blamed
> human encroachment on
> nesting areas.
>
> "Birds and people are alike in wanting bare sand.
> Only we go there to play
> beach volleyball and have picnics," he said.
>
> In Jefferson City, the Missouri American Water Co.
> said the lower flows were
> expected to drop the river at the company's intake
> pipes. The company
> temporarily installed a more powerful pump to
> compensate, Michael Gray,
> manager of the company's central operations in
> Jefferson City, told The
> Associated Press.
>
> The company also pumps water from the Missouri River
> in St. Louis County.
> But Tony Paraino, a spokesman for the company, said
> the waterworks should
> not be affected by the lower river levels.
>
> Reporter Bill Lambrecht:
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> Phone: 202-298-6880
>
> Omaha World-Herald
> August 13, 2003
>
> Nebraska defends river position
> By Henry J. Cordes
> World-Herald Staff Writer
>
> With the positions it has taken this summer in legal
> battles over the
> Missouri River, the State of Nebraska has emerged as
> one of the biggest
> barriers to changing river flows to aid endangered
> wildlife,
> environmentalists said Tuesday.
>
> "They have litigated to stop these changes harder
> than the State of Missouri
> and have become the most intransigent force on the
> river," said Tim
> Searchinger, an attorney with Environmental Defense
> in Washington.
>
> Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, whose office
> represented the state in
> the litigation, defended the stands taken as
> protecting the state's economic
> interests.
>
> This week's closing of the riverside marina at
> Omaha's N.P. Dodge Park
> offered proof that there is a financial stake for
> Nebraska in the kinds of
> flow changes environmentalists have been fighting
> for on the river.
>
> "If the expectation is Nebraska is going to roll
> over for the
> environmentalists, it's not going to happen,"
> Bruning said. "We care about
> their concerns, but we also care about the concerns
> of recreation and
> agriculture."
>
> While the State of Missouri has long been most
> adamant in its opposition to
> flow changes to aid wildlife on the Missouri, it was
> Nebraska that took the
> highest-profile role in the legal battles that have
> played out over the past
> year.
>
> Nebraska was in Washington fighting to stop a
> judge's order that river flows
> be lowered this summer to create more habitat for
> two endangered shorebirds
> and an endangered fish. It also obtained another
> court order in Nebraska
> that the Army Corps of Engineers used to justify its
> decision not to
> implement the Washington court order.
>
> In the end, another judge decided there wasn't a
> conflict between the orders
> and ordered the corps to make the flow changes it is
> now implementing for
> the last few weeks of the breeding season on the
> river.
>
> The corps expected to drop the river to the lowest
> level required by the end
> of the day Tuesday.
>
> In a Tuesday conference call from Washington,
> environmentalists said they
> were surprised by the aggressive stand against flow
> changes that Nebraska
> has taken this summer, which they said seemed in
> conflict with the state's
> previous support for compromise solutions on the
> river.
>
> Nebraska was among a majority of states in the
> Missouri River basin that
> last year endorsed a plan for experimental flow
> changes to aid wildlife.
> That plan had included several conditions, including
> increased monitoring
> and compensation for those adversely affected.
>
> Bruning said all the legal stands his office took
> this summer were in
> accordance with the state's past position. He said
> he worked closely with
> the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, which
> has represented Gov.
> Mike Johanns' administration on Missouri River
> issues.
>
> He said the problem is that environmentalists this
> summer were seeking to
> get "the whole pie" with their lawsuits on behalf of
> wildlife.
>
> The environmentalists reserved their sharpest
> criticism Tuesday for the
> Corps of Engineers. While the corps tried to present
> itself as legally
> caught in the middle, Searchinger said, the corps
> consistently took legal
> positions that showed it has no interest in changing
> its dam operations on
> the river.
>
> Sioux City Journal
> August 13, 2003
>
> As river flows fall, conservationists press ahead
> By Libby Quaid
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) -- Reductions in Missouri River
> water levels will last a
> fraction of the duration intended by a federal
> judge, but conservation
> groups said Tuesday that the change in river
> operations sets an important
> precedent.
>
> The Army Corps of Engineers began cutting water
> releases from upstream
> reservoirs Sunday night and expected to be fully in
> compliance with the
> judge's order by Tuesday evening.
>
> U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler in
> Washington last month told the
> corps to slow releases from 26,000 cubic feet per
> second to 21,000 cfs from
> mid-July to mid-August. The corps finally agreed to
> reduce the river's
> depth, but weeks of legal wrangling mean reductions
> will last only three
> days.
> Even so, conservation groups said Tuesday that the
> change will have a
> lasting effect on threatened and endangered bird and
> fish species.
>
> "We believe the corps has been dragging its feet in
> an unconscionable way
> throughout this matter in an attempt to get to the
> end of the line and not
> have any flow changes," said David Hayes, lead
> attorney for the groups.
> "This demonstrates the corps is not above the law."
>
> Led by American Rivers, the groups are suing to
> force the Missouri to ebb
> and flow more naturally to encourage spawning and
> nesting to help sturgeon
> and shorebird species on the government's threatened
> and endangered lists.
>
> They say the corps is violating the Endangered
> Species Act by blocking the
> flow changes.
>
> But barge and farming interests insist that the
> corps has a legal obligation
> to provide enough water for barges. They're backed
> by the sport fishing
> industry and other interests in Montana and the
> Dakotas that would benefit
> from low summer flows keeping more water in their
> reservoirs.
>
> Conservationists said Tuesday they are shifting
> focus toward formal talks
> between the corps and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
> Service intended to result
> in a new "master manual" for the river's flow by
> next year.
>
> A new plan of operations was due last year but was
> postponed by the Bush
> administration. The corps is proposing a plan that
> does not alter the
> Missouri's flow and instead develops new habitat for
> the least tern, piping
> plover and pallid sturgeon.
>
> American Rivers spokesman Chad Smith said Tuesday
> that scientists maintain
> that habitat restoration won't help the animals
> without flow changes, too.
>
> "It's just lipstick on a pig; the same argument has
> been used time and time
> again," Smith said.
>
> Officials of the groups told reporters during a
> conference call Tuesday that
> while plovers are doing relatively well, terns have
> suffered this year on
> the Missouri.
>
> Kessler ordered the reductions in granting an
> injunction to American Rivers
> and the other groups, but the corps refused to obey
> her because the agency
> said a different federal court in Nebraska had
> issued a conflicting
> injunction requiring enough water for shipping.
> Barge navigation requires
> releases of at least 25,000 cfs.
>
> Kessler cited the agency for contempt, but before
> her fines of $500,000 per
> day took effect, a judicial panel reassigned all
> Missouri River litigation
> to a third judge, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson
> in Minnesota.
>
> Magnuson delayed the contempt finding but ruled last
> week that there was no
> conflict and that Kessler's order stands. A status
> conference is set Sept. 8
> in his court.
>
> Chad Smith, Director
> Nebraska Field Office - American Rivers
> Mill Towne Building
> 650 J Street, Suite 400
> Lincoln, Nebraska 68508
> 402-477-7910
> 402-477-2565 (FAX)
> 402-730-5593 (CELLULAR)
> [log in to unmask]
>
>


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