Rivers feel heat as U.S. energy demand rises

Missouri River tops list of most threatened rivers

The group American Rivers says the Missouri River is the nation's most endangered

By Natalie Pawelski
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rivers in the United States are paying the price for the nation's growing energy appetite, according to a new report from the environmental group American Rivers.

"Damming, drilling, burning -- all of these things have impacts and they have them first and worst on our nation's rivers," said Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers, which is calling for a river-friendly energy policy.

The annual report, called "America's Most Endangered Rivers," is designed to focus attention on waterways that are threatened by critical decisions which will be made over the next 12 months.

"This is not a list of the nation's worst rivers, it is a list of rivers that are in danger," Wodder said.

Topping the list is the Missouri River, where the Army Corps of Engineers is considering changing the way it operates dams on the river. That decision may help save endangered species in and on the river, including a fish called the pallid sturgeon and a swallow-like bird called the interior least tern.

The interior least tern is among the threatened species along the Missouri River

Number two on the threatened rivers list is the Canning River. The river runs through Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which the Bush administration is trying to open up for oil drilling. Environmentalists say the Canning is threatened by spills, routine pollution, and industrial use of water.

The Eel River in California is number three on the list. Three species of fish in the river are in trouble because of hydropower dams.

Next is the Hudson River in New York, polluted for decades by General Electric plants making transformers and capacitors. More than a million pounds of toxic PCBs ended up in the river. The EPA is scheduled to decide soon whether GE will have to pay to dredge and clean up the river, or whether the PCBs will be left undisturbed in the river bottom.

River number five, the Powder River in Wyoming, is in the middle of a big drilling boom for a kind of natural gas called coal bed methane.

"We've pumped already 30 billion gallons of water out of these aquifers, and basically dumped it on the land, which has led to erosion and oftentimes poor quality water moving off of the land and into the river," Wodder said.

The other rivers on the list:

6.) Mississippi River -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has proposed flood-control projects that American Rivers says would destroy 200,000 acres of floodplain wetlands, and add to water pollution already blamed for creating a vast dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

7.) Big Sandy River (West Virginia/Kentucky) -- Last October, a giant coal sludge spill killed all the wildlife in 75 miles of the waterway. The cleanup of the river continues.

The endangered pallid sturgeon

8.) Snoqualmie River (Washington) -- Salmon and scenic landscapes are threatened, American Rivers says, by sprawling development.

9.) Animas River (Colorado/New Mexico) -- A proposed water project threatens fish species, rafting businesses, wetlands and a trout fishery, says American Rivers. The group says the project is a pork-barrel waste of taxpayer money.

10.) East Fork Lewis (Washington) -- A proposed 4,000-ton a day gravel mine expansion threatens spawning grounds for three species of already-threatened salmon, American Rivers says.

11.) Paine Run (Virginia) -- This river, in Shenandoah National Park, is damaged by acid rain blamed on power plants.

12.) Hackensack River and the Meadowlands (New York/New Jersey) -- Development pressures threaten the largest block of wetlands in the area.

13.) Catawba River (North Carolina/South Carolina) -- Sprawl threatens the river's capacity for providing drinking water, supporting wildlife, assimilating sewage and providing recreational opportunities for people in the Charlotte area, the group says.

American Rivers
Environmental Protection Agency

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