Conservation Group Lists Nation’s Endangered Rivers

From hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest to chicken farms near the Potomac River, a conservation group Monday cited a growing list of threats to some of the nation’s most famous waterways.

American Rivers picked the last undisturbed stretch of the Columbia River in Washington state to head its 13th annual list of the 20 most endangered rivers in the nation.

“We continue to abuse our rivers--by damming, draining, straightening and polluting them--all the while weakening their ability to sustain fish and wildlife,” said Rebecca Wodder, president of the Washington, D.C.-based group.

California’s Kern River also made the list of endangered waterways because of small hydropower dams. The Colorado River Delta in Baja California, Mexico, was picked because of water overuse.

The Columbia’s 51-mile Hanford Reach, one of the longest undisturbed U.S. river stretches, continues to produce the region’s strongest Chinook salmon runs while fish populations crash in other dammed stretches of the Snake and Columbia river system.

Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Norman D. Dicks, both Washington Democrats, have introduced legislation to designate the Hanford Reach a National Wild and Scenic River to protect it against farming and potential development. American Rivers advocates creation of a 90,000-acre refuge.

“This spectacular stretch of the river is the crown jewel of the Columbia River,” said Lorraine Bodi, co-director of American Rivers’ Northwest office in Seattle.

Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), who opposes federal designation of the river, said the Hanford Reach faces no immediate threat. He advocates local control and said the group’s list was based on politics.

“To say that this pristine stretch of the Columbia River is ‘endangered’ shows that the American Rivers group is clearly not interested in preservation but rather they are trying to advance their own political agenda.”

Others on the list of rivers that the group says are endangered include the Missouri, the Chattahoochee River in the Southeast, the Potomac and Pocomoke rivers in Maryland, Passaic River in New Jersey, Blackfoot River in Montana, Apple River in Wisconsin and Pinto Creek in Arizona.

Animal manure and other farm runoff pose threats to the Pocomoke, Chattahoochee, Apple, Potomac and Kansas rivers, among others, the group said. Nearly 500,000 animal factory farms are producing 130 times the waste of the human population, the group said.

“Factory hog and chicken farms are a growing national blight on our nation’s rivers,” Wodder said.