COMMENT: Perhaps we should attempt to get the Sulphur River placed into the endangered category. Certainly that would slow down, if not thwart, the construction of anymore dams and reservoirs. R.
Associated Press, Via The Dallas Morning News, 10 April 2003
"It's all about learning to use the river more wisely," group says.
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico -- The Rio Grande was named Thursday as one of the nation's most endangered rivers by American Rivers, a national conservation group.
The nearly 2,000-mile-long waterway, which cuts through the middle of New Mexico on its way from Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico, was listed as the fifth-most endangered river in the nation. It was the fourth time the river made the list since 1995.
American Rivers said it singled out the Rio Grande because of the prospect of Albuquerque and Brownsville taking water from it and the determination of federal dam operators to deliver irrigation water despite drying up stretches of the river each year.
"It's all about learning to use the river more wisely, not just for animals but for humans, too. ... It has to be sustainable," said Serena McClain of American Rivers' headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Municipal and agricultural uses already claim nearly 95 percent of the Rio Grande's average annual flow, and parts of the river have run dry in four of the last five years.
"For two summers in a row, the Rio Grande has failed to reach the sea," Rebecca R. Wodder, president of American Rivers, said in remarks prepared for a news conference in Washington. "If the cities succeed in securing more river water and federal agencies stick with status quo irrigation deliveries, the Rio Grande may have seen the last of the Gulf of Mexico."
Steve Harris, director of Albuquerque-based Rio Grande Restoration, said less than a tenth of the water from the Rio Grande's upper watersheds survives below El Paso. "And that's the good news. The bad news is that we're busily developing the last 10 percent," he said.
The endangered-rivers list also includes the Trinity, which runs through the Dallas-Fort Worth area; the Big Sunflower in Mississippi; the Klamath in California and Oregon; the Ipswich in Massachusetts; the Gunnison in Colorado; the Mattaponi in Virginia; the Platte in Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska; the Snake in Idaho, Washington and Oregon; and the Tallapoosa in Alabama and Georgia.
The Dallas Morning News, 10 April 2003
By Randy Lee Loftis, Environmental Writer
mailto:rloftis@dallasnews.com
Staff writer Victoria Loe Hicks contributed to this report.
Dallas' plans for the Trinity River make the beleaguered stream one of the country's 10 most endangered rivers, a national conservation group says.
American Rivers, based in Washington, D.C., put the Trinity at No. 10 on its annual list of endangered rivers because of plans to put a roadway along the river for nine miles and to make flood-control changes south of downtown. The list, which highlights rivers that the group says face immediate threats risk from pollution, dam-building or risks, is to be released Thursday. [sic]
"The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the city of Dallas are preparing to transform a surpringly pristine portion of the Trinity River into a giant storm drain," said American Rivers president Rebecca R. Wodder. "Unless the public can persuade them to revise their vision for the city's riverfront, Dallas residents will lose a remarkable urban oasis."
Rebecca Dugger, director of the city's Trinity River Corridor Project, said that's not true. The plan balances flood-control and transportation needs with environmental concerns, she said. "There's a lot of misconception," said Ms. Dugger. "We're not putting a giant culvert in."
Under a plan that the City Council adopted in 1997, the Trinity's bottomland along downtown Dallas would become a park, while a high-speed tollway would be built between the levees. Two new levees in South Dallas would be accompanied by the removal of thousands of trees and other vegetation.
Since the initial approval, planners have proposed trimming the eight-lane tollway down to six lanes from Highway 183 to downtown, and to four toll-free lanes south from downtown to Highway 175. The City Council has not adopted those changes.
A federal judge has stopped construction and ordered more environmental studies at the request of Dallas environmental groups that oppose the plan. Those groups nominated the Trinity for the most-endangered list.
Dallas Historic Tree Coalition president Bill Seaman said the loss of trees along the Dallas Floodway Extension south of downtown is unacceptable. Floodway planners "should not ignore alternatives that would spare 34,000 air-filtering, mature trees," he said.
Ms. Dugger said the loss of existing trees in only half the story. The plan would create wetlands to help with flood control, plant many new trees and buy thousands of acres elsewhere for conservation to mitigate the project's impact. she said.
"There is a balance," she said.