--
> Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 12:20:15 -0600
>
> American Rivers * Environmental Defense
>
> For Immediate Release
> October 29, 2003
>
> Contact:
> Chad Smith, American Rivers, (402) 477-7910
> Tim Searchinger, Environmental Defense, (202)
> 387-3500 ext. 3344
>
> Corps' Missouri River Plan "Dead on Arrival"
>
> (Lincoln, NE)  Conservation groups blasted the U.S.
> Army Corps of Engineers'
> 2004 draft Annual Operating Plan for the Missouri
> River today, signaling
> continued legal wrangling over river management that
> the groups argue is
> "stuck in the 1960s" - when the current river
> management plan was written.
> The groups contended the Corps is ignoring clear
> scientific evidence and
> important opportunities to boost local economies in
> the basin through
> increased recreation and tourism.
>
> The Corps released its draft 2004 Annual Operating
> Plan (AOP) for the
> Missouri River's big dams this month and is hosting
> meetings this week to
> gather public input on the plan.
>
> "This 2004 AOP is simply the status quo, and
> therefore it is dead on
> arrival," said Chad Smith, Director of American
> Rivers' Nebraska Field
> Office.  "This plan is focused on the past, when we
> need to focus on the
> future - a healthy river, more hunting, fishing, and
> outdoor recreation
> opportunities, and a river that actually functions
> as an economic asset for
> this basin."
>
> American Rivers, Environmental Defense, the Izaak
> Walton League of America,
> the National Wildlife Federation, and the
> Federation's state affiliates in
> Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa,
> and Kansas sued the
> Corps last year to force the agency to adopt more
> natural flows on the
> Missouri River in compliance with the U.S. Fish and
> Wildlife Service's 2000
> Final Biological Opinion on dam operations.  The
> opinion recommend a modest
> increase in spring flows once every three years to
> increase fish
> reproduction and build sandbar habitat, and lower
> flows every summer to
> expose sand for nesting birds and provide increased
> shallow water habitat.
>
> The 2004 draft AOP focuses on maintaining flows for
> commercial navigation
> and does not include the low-flow period, and no
> scientific evidence has
> been presented by the Corps showing why the agency
> believes high summer
> flows are good for fish and wildlife.
>
> "The decision to sacrifice three endangered species
> to float two tow boats a
> day makes particularly little sense since the Corps
> itself concluded that
> changing river flows to protect these species would
> increase the river's
> economic benefits," said Tim Searchinger, attorney
> for Environmental
> Defense.
>
> The scientific and public consensus on Missouri
> River management has long
> been clear - flow restoration is a critical
> component to restoring the
> health of the Missouri River, and would also help
> jump-start the basin's
> economy.  For example:
>
> * In January 2002, the National Academy of Sciences
> issued a report on the
> Missouri River, stating: "Degradation of the
> Missouri River ecosystem will
> continue unless some portion of the hydrologic and
> geomorphic processes that
> sustained the pre-regulation Missouri River and
> floodplain ecosystem are
> restored - including flow pulses that emulate the
> natural hydrograph."
> * In April 2003, the fish and wildlife management
> agencies from the basin
> states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota,
> Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and
> Missouri all wrote to the Fish and Wildlife Service
> and collectively stated
> that they were "not aware of any new biological
> information that would alter
> the conclusions and recommendations of the November
> 2000 Biological
> Opinion."
> * The National Academy of Sciences also concluded
> that Missouri River dam
> reforms will "enhance the valuable fishery
> resources...increase waterfowl
> populations...increase the abundance of largemouth
> bass...attract more
> anglers to the region...and result in marked
> increases in user-days for
> recreational fishing, commercial fishing, and
> hunting" and thus may be
> "justifiable solely on the grounds that it
> represents an economic
> improvement" over current dam operations. Already,
> these activities on the
> Missouri generate nearly $90 million each year. In
> contrast, the barge indus
> try has dwindled to less than $7 million annually
> among four states.
> * Out of 55,000 comments submitted to the Corps
> during a public comment
> period on dam operations that ended in early 2002,
> over 54,000 supported the
> restoration of more natural flows to the Missouri.
> At least eight major
> Missouri River basin newspapers have editorialized
> numerous times in favor
> of restoring more natural flows to the Missouri. Six
> of the eight governors(NOT VILSACK)
> in the Missouri River basin have formally
> recommended experimenting with
> flow changes to restore the river.
>
> Despite these facts, the Corps included no flow
> changes in the 2004 draft
> AOP, and continues to maintain that flow changes are
> not necessary to
> prevent species extinction.  The Corps is also
> mounting efforts to force the
> Fish and Wildlife Service to agree that current
> operations are good for
> native fish and wildlife, contrary to the Fish and
> Wildlife Service's
> long-standing conclusions that current dam
> operations are the chief culprit
> in the river's poor health.
>
> "The draft AOP doesn't pass the scientific laugh
> test, it's contrary to the
> environmental and economic health of this basin, and
> it will keep this river
> and this basin mired in a legal quagmire," said
> Smith.
>
> The inadequacies of the 2004 draft AOP are even more
> glaring considering a
> federal court this summer ordered the Corps to
> operate the Missouri River
> under the scientific guidelines of the 2000
> biological opinion and provide a
> period of lower flows on the river last July and
> August.  After a month of
> defying the court order, the Corps finally committed
> to reduce the amount of
> water released from Gavins Point Dam into the
> Missouri River in August.
>
> For more information on Missouri River management,
> visit
> www.americanrivers.org.
>
>
>
> 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]
>
>


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Exclusive Video Premiere - Britney Spears
http://launch.yahoo.com/promos/britneyspears/

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see:
 http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp