COLORADO FOUNDATION FOR WATER EDUCATION (CFWE) HIRES DIRECTOR
With $250,000 in start-up funds, the foundation was formed to “promote a better understanding of water issues through educational opportunities and resources.” The legislature allocated the money, along with $150,000 annually thereafter, to be administered by the Colorado Water Conservation Board. Karla Brown, a former water quality specialist for Colorado State Cooperative Extension, has been named as the first executive director for the CFWE. Brown holds a Masters in rangeland ecosystem science from Colorado State University, and earned a Bachelors in political science at Cornell University. Her background includes development of water-related research and educational programs, grant writing, public outreach and group facilitation.
<www.co-water-edu.org>
USGS LAUNCHES NEW WEB SITE FOR NATION’S WATER DATA
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has unveiled its new online WaterWatch website which gives visitors an instantaneous picture of water conditions nationwide in near real time. Through the use of USGS WaterWatch maps, the entire nation’s current streamflow conditions, including high flood-flows and low drought-flows are depicted on maps with color-coded dots which represent conditions at about 3,000 streamgages.
<http://water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/>
COLORADO’S TREES INDICATE WORST DROUGHT IN 270 YEARS
Six of seven Colorado basins are setting record low stream flows, most of the state’s reservoirs are empty or dead and a new study of tree rings shows 2002 was the driest year since 1730. Alamosa Valley Courier; 10/16
<http://www.zwire.com/news/newsstory.cfm?newsid=5720784&title=Tree%20rings%20tell%20tale%20of%20drought&BRD=1190&PAG=461&CATNAME=Top%20Stories&CATEGORYID=410>
COLORADO COUNTIES PRESENT WATER-USE AGREEMENTS TO LAWMAKERS
Representatives of 58 Colorado counties wrote 10 principles that balance water resource developments with economic, environmental and social impacts, which they hope lawmakers will consider when making water-related bills. Denver Rocky Mountain News; Oct. 25
<http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=5088>
COLORADO AQUIFERS DROPPING 20-PLUS FEET A YEAR
Most of the attention during the drought has been focused on the reservoirs that supply metro Denver, but outside the basin, domestic, agricultural and industrial wells are lowering aquifer levels 20 to 30 feet a year. Denver Rocky Mountain News; Oct.28
<http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=5126>
BUSH CEDES WATER RIGHTS TO STATES
The Bush administration is willing to give states water reserved for public lands, starting with a Colorado national park, and some environmentalists fear that the policy change will deprive wilderness, national forests and wildlife refuges to supply cities and irrigators. New York Times; Oct. 13
<http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4867>
WESTERN COLORADO COUNTY EYES WATER PURCHASE FOR RURAL HOMES
La Plata County officials in western Colorado are considering a plan to buy 2,000 acre-feet of water from the local irrigation district and feed it into the system that supplies rural homes. Durango Herald; Oct. 8
<http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/news021006_1.htm>
ELKHEAD RESERVOIR ENLARGEMENT TO BE INCREASED
Elkhead reservoir, on a tributary of the Yampa River, currently holds 13,700 af. Plans were approved to increase its storage capacity by 8,500 af to provide water to help recover endangered fish and for future consumptive needs. The Colorado River Water Conservation District has now approved an increase of storage by an additional 13,000 af to reflect the increased need for stored water demonstrated by this year’s drought. Funding for the additional enlargement is expected to come from passage of a mill levy increase being requested by the River District
COLORADO WATER MANAGERS WORRY DROUGHT HAS ONLY STARTED
Denver-area water managers say the state must get 150 percent of average snowfall this winter to begin recovering from drought. Denver Rocky Mountain News; Oct. 7
<http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_1463482,00.html>
SUMMITVILLE MINE TO GET NEW WATER TREATMENT PLANT
A new water treatment plant will be built at the now defunct Summitville mine. The new plant, which will cost as much as $8 million, will treat acidic mine water contaminating the Alamosa River originating from the mine site. Construction should begin in June 2004 and be fully functional by 2006. According to the EPA, cleanup is expected to take 100 years.
<http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2002/10/14/story4.html>
SANTA FE PLANNERS SAY GROWTH WILL EXCEED WATER SUPPLY IN 20 YEARS
If Santa Fe’s growth continues at about the same pace, both the city and the county will be unable to supply enough water by the year 2020, according to a regional planning report. Santa Fe New Mexican; 10/16
<http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4925>
ENDANGERED FISH WILL SURVIVE IN CAPTIVITY, IF NOT IN N.M. RIVER
It makes little sense to release precious water from the Navajo Reservoir in New Mexico on the chance it might benefit two endangered fish species, when the fish are being successfully raised in ponds. Farmington Daily Times; 10/9
<http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4804>
COURT STAYS MINNOW WATER RELEASE
A federal appeals court has “placed a hold” on an emergency water release to keep the largest surviving wild population of the Rio Grande silvery minnow from being extirpated says the Albuquerque Journal, AP 10/17.
Environmentalists fighting to save the minnow were “shocked” that the appeals court would rule in favor of preserving a “few thousand acre-feet of water against the potential elimination of a species.” Conservationists maintain that the water is needed “right now” to protect the minnow through the end of the irrigation season.
<http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4974>
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has refused to overturn an appeals court ruling that put a hold on an emergency water release to save the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow says SF Gate, AP 10/18. According to the Washington Times, UPI 10/18, Justice Breyer refused to “refer the matter to the full court for a vote,” thus opening the way for the Bush administration to “terminate its leases of reservoir water for the silvery minnow, which in turn will result in the drying of the river and the death of almost all the last remaining silvery minnows within days.”
MINNOW REMOVAL LOOMING
Federal biologists are expediting plans to remove endangered silvery minnows from the “drying Rio Grande after environmental groups exhausted their court fight to keep the river water flowing” says SF Gate, AP 10/18. With the 60 mile stretch of river that supports the wild minnow population in imminent danger of drying out, the USFWS acknowledged “there’s a new sense of urgency,” but still does not know “where the rescued fish would be kept,” when the removal effort will begin, nor how many would be removed. Commenting on the plan to try and return the minnows later when there is more water, Forest Guardians said “There’s no history of successful reintroduction of the species from tanks into the wild.”
SOME WATER FOUND FOR MINNOW
A small amount of water “illegally diverted for irrigation earlier this year” is “now being “repaid” in order to help the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow avoid extinction says SF Gate, AP 10/23. The water is enough to keep the middle Rio Grande flowing through the end of October, and the Bureau of Reclamation stated, “We’ve come to the brink a couple of times but been rescued.”
END OF DROUGHT SHOULDN’T MEAN AN END TO N.M. WATER PLAN
Even if New Mexico gets abundant snow this winter, the state and its growing number of residents need a statewide water plan. Farmington Daily Times; Oct. 8
<http://www.daily-times.com/Stories/0,1413,129%257E6567%257E909112,00.html>
SAN JUAN WATER PLAN
New Mexico’s San Juan Water Commission has been working on drafting the document for more than six months and, upon completion, the plan should be a 40-year projection of water patterns in the basin. The three main issues of concern voiced by the public as well as members of the planning committee are the document’s legal connotations, the absence of water rights in the draft, and the validity of the statistics in the plan. The executive director of the Commission, Randy Kirkpatrick, said the purpose of the water plan is three-fold. The plan should first and foremost educate the public about the status of the region’s water. Second, the document protects water for the future by showing that this area needs and uses all of the water that it has. And, finally, by having a regional water plan, it is easier and more efficient to get funds from the state to support local water projects if the supply and demands are mapped out in a formal document. Completion of the plan’s final draft should be finished by December and submitted to the state by February 2003.
The plan is available for review on the commission’s Web site:
RIO GRANDE CUTTHROAT DECISION CHALLENGED
Conservationists announced plans to file a lawsuit over the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s (FWS)decision to deny the Rio Grande cutthroat trout protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) says the Santa Fe New Mexican 10/25. The Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Alliance, Carson Forest Watch, Center for Native Ecosystems and Pacific Rivers Council maintain that the Bush administration is “stonewalling” the listing and “playing politics while this beautiful fish spirals toward extinction.” Scientists say that the fish has been eliminated from 95% of its historic range and that the 13 remaining populations remain vulnerable to being wiped out.
PLAN CALLS FOR GRAND CANYON PIPELINE TO SEND WATER TO COAL MINE
U.S. Sen. Jon Kyle, R-Ariz., is pushing a plan to allow an Arizona tribe to lease Colorado River water to Peabody Coal’s Black Mesa mines, and to build a pipeline up and through the rim of the Grand Canyon to deliver it — a project roughly on the scale of building the Glen Canyon Dam. Arizona Daily Sun; Oct. 10
<http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4838>
NAVAJO, HOPI DILEMMA IS JOBS VS. WATER AND COAL ROYALTIES
Peabody Coal Co.’s Black Mesa operations pit hundreds of high-paying reservation jobs against ancient and sacred Hopi water rights and royalties that Navajos law suits allege are too low. Phoenix New Times; 10/10
<http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4840>
WYOMING’S INSTREAM FLOW LAW SEEN AS TOO CUMBERSOME
Agency leaders, conservationists and ranchers all want to streamline Wyoming’s instream flow law. Billings Gazette; Oct. 13
<http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2002/10/13/build/wyoming/70-instream.inc>
UTAH DAM FIXES COMPOUND DROUGHT FOR IRRIGATORS
Utah requires inspection and maintenance of all the state’s dams, and that means a prolonged drought for some irrigators. Deseret News; Oct. 14
<http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,410018464,00.html>
CADIZ’S MOHAVE DESERT WATER-STORAGE PROJECT EVAPORATES
California officials have rejected a private company’s plan to store excess Colorado River water in an aquifer beneath the Mojave Desert and sell it to Southern California users during dry years. New York Times; Oct. 9
<http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4823>
RENO-AREA OFFICIALS CONSIDER NO GROWTH WITHOUT MORE WATER
Officials in northern Nevada’s Washoe County are calling for a no-net-growth policy until more water supplies are developed. Reno Gazette-Journal; Oct. 8
<http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2002/10/07/25502.php?sp1=&sp2=&sp3=>
CALIFORNIA FARMERS AGREE TO GIVE UP SOME WATER FOR THE SAN DIEGO AREA
Southern California water agencies reached a tentative agreement to shift millions of gallons of Colorado River water used by desert farmers to fast-growing urban San Diego. The plan is a key step in an overall effort to reduce California’sover-reliance on the Colorado River.
<http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/10/10172002/ap_48734.asp>
CALIFORNIA WATER DEAL TO EASE PRESSURE ON COLORADO RIVER UPSTREAM
The agreement last week that will sell some of Southern California irrigators’ water to San Diego is a major relief for upstream states that rely on Colorado River water. Las Vegas Review-Journal; 10/21
<http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2002/Oct-21-Mon-2002/opinion/19861909.html>
CUTTHROAT RESTORATION MOVES FORWARD
The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe and Nevada state wildlife officials have pledged to work together to restore threatened Lahontan cutthroat in the Truckee River says the Reno Gazette-Journal 10/15. While specific details remain to be worked out, the tribe called the pact a “historic turn of events” and a “turning point in the relationship of state and federal wildlife officials, who have been at odds over recovery of the fish in the Truckee River.” The partnership will expand on recent habitat improvements, including a fishway around Derby Dam, that will allow the state fish to spawn upstream in the river for the first time in 90 years.
USFWS PRESSURED TO DELIST BULL TROUT
U.S. Representative Jim Gibbons, (R-NV) has asked USFWS Director Steven Williams to remove ESA protection for the Jarbidge bull trout says the Reno Gazette-Journal, AP 9/27. An estimated 1,000 adult bull trout remain, “half the number the American Fisheries Society believes is necessary to keep a species alive,” and while state politicians say that its extinction is an inevitable “natural process,” conservationists contend that “reducing streamside erosion, improving habitat and protecting trees that shade water could help the fish flourish.” A recovery plan is expected by 2004.
NEW COLORADO RIVER DELTA WEBSITE
A new website is under construction by the University of Arizona in conjunction with the Sonoran Institute and NASA. You can visit the site at
<http://www.ag.arizona.edu/colorado_river_delta>
VIVA LAS VEGAS
Las Vegas, Nev., the desert-turned-oasis of slot machines, plastic pyramids, and indoor waterfalls, is now undergoing a new kind of metamorphosis: A former 10-mile-long sewage gully is being transformed into a wetlands park that will be one of the largest swaths of locally preserved land in the nation. For 25 years, the Las Vegas “Wash” was an eroded channel draining 150 million gallons of treated sewage and contaminated groundwater per day into nearby Lake Mead. But in 1973, an effort was launched to turn the Wash into a 2,900-acre wetlands preserve. It took 18 years to secure the bond initiative; so far, $14 million has been spent and 150 acres have been redeveloped. When it’s done, the park, which boasts reintroduced cottonwood, willow, and mesquite trees and a growing wildlife population, will have 30 to 50 miles of hiking trails. Elsewhere in Las Vegas, workers are renovating 30 acres of a planned 180-acre, $171 million meadow preserve.
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=575>
MONTANA COURT SAYS RECREATION BENEFICIAL USE OF WATER
The Montana Supreme Court overturned a 1988 ruling and now says that fish, wildlife and recreation are beneficial uses of water under Montana law. Great Falls Tribune; Oct. 4
<http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4752>
MONTANA WATER RULING ACTUALLY WON’T CHANGE MUCH AT ALL
A recent ruling that instream flows can be beneficial water uses won’t deprive irrigators of a drop, despite recent hysteria to the contrary. A guest column by Trout Unlimited leaders. Billings Gazette; 10/30
<http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=5164>
GRAYLING RECOVERY A MODEL FOR COOPERATION
In a region where saving a small fish has more often than not resulted in bitter conflict, “Montana’s ranchers and outfitters, activists and politicos” are “sitting down and hammering out a plan that everyone can live with” to save the Arctic grayling from extinction says the Billings Gazette 10/1. A remnant of the Ice Age, dams in the upper Missouri watershed blocked traditional migration routes and reduced the fish to “less than 4% of its historical range.” Now, a collaborative effort among landowners, water users, scientists and land managers to save a “single remnant population” from extinction is “redefining the way land use issues are handled.”
DAM MANAGERS GET “F”
Managers of dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers were given a failing grade for their efforts to meet federal standards for water quality and temperature during the 2002 salmon migration says Environmental News Service (ENS) 10/1. American River’s annual “report card” charges that “river conditions in 2002 violated both the ESA and the Clean Water Act. The report says federal Snake River dam managers “failed to meet spring water quantity targets 74.6% of the time, and failed to meet summer water quantity targets 80.1%” despite a “near normal water year in much of the Columbia Basin.” The 2002 Salmon Migration Report Card is at
<http://www.amrivers.org/pressrelease/snakepress9.30.02.htm>
UTILITY TO BUST DAMS
An Oregon utility company, Portland General Electric, has agreed to remove two of its hydroelectric dams and restore “about 21 miles of river habitat for endangered salmon” says Greenwire 10/28. The utility is also donating water rights and land in the Sandy River watershed to create a 5,000 acre wildlife and public recreation area in a “stellar” conservation effort that “went above and beyond its obligations.”
<http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2002/2002-10-28-06.asp>
CORPS MUST MAINTAIN LAKE LEVEL
A federal judge has ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to maintain water levels in Idaho’s Lake Pend Oreille this winter to protect endangered bull trout and an important food source, the kokanee, which spawn in the lake’s shallows” says the Idaho Statesman 10/25. In the ruling , the judge stated that “In light of the environmental laws passed by Congress, it is no longer possible for economics alone to control the Corps’ operations.”
KLAMATH WATER CUTBACK CRISIS
Conservationists and tribes are warning that the Bush administration’s cutback of emergency water flows to the lower Klamath River could “wreak havoc on fall salmon runs already hit hard by a die-off that claimed as many as 30,000 fish” says the L.A. Times 10/11. Dropping water levels could leave the eggs of spawning salmon high and dry and keep ESA listed coho salmon, which are just entering the river, from reaching the creeks and tributaries where they spawn.
TRIBES JOIN KLAMATH LAWSUIT
Native American tribes have joined a lawsuit by conservationists and fishing groups to force the Bush administration to maintain adequate flows in the lower Klamath River says the Oregonian 10/11. “Flows in the Klamath River fell this year as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation provided a full allotment of irrigation water to Klamath Project farmers and the tribes want the courts to force the administration to honor treaty obligations to “maintain healthy tribal fisheries in the lower Klamath River.”
CA SLAMS NORTON FOR KLAMATH FISH KILL
California’s Secretary for Resources has sent a “scalding indictment” to Interior Secretary Norton expressing “grave disappointment” over “decisions that have contributed to an unprecedented fish kill in the lower Klamath River” says the Eureka Times-Standard 10/16. “Estimates show that as many as two-thirds” of the 30,000 salmon killed in late September were “wild or natural fish that spawn in the Klamath or Trinity rivers or their tributaries,” including threatened coho and steelhead, and the letter sanctioned by Governor Grey Davis “condemns the Interior Department’s management.”
COHO SALMON SPARED?
With the Klamath River “crisis apparently passed,” the California Dept. of Fish and Game is cautiously optimistic that the “fall run of endangered coho salmon, which peaks in November, will be spared” says the Santa Rosa Press Democrat 10/24. The “death toll from a massive Klamath River fish kill was at least 33,000 — about 30% higher than the last official estimate” a figure that scientists consider “conservative because of obstacles to tallying the dead.”
HERBICIDE DANGER CHALLENGED IN COURT
Environmental and fishing groups are asking a federal court to force the Bureau of Reclamation to better regulate the use of an aquatic herbicide, acrolein, as well as other agricultural chemicals that could harm endangered sucker fish in Upper Klamath Lake and nearby irrigation canals says the Klamath Falls Herald and News 10/23. Acrolein is “highly toxic” to fish but the local irrigation district says that “killing a few fish is allowed” under EPA issued permits and is “not a major problem.” The Oregon Natural Resources Council, Headwaters and Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations charge that the Bureau of Reclamation has never “bothered” to see how many fish are being killed and the local Endangered Species Office confirms that it has not received the “required annual monitoring reports for the chemicals.”
NEXT YEAR’S GROWING SEASON DEPENDS ON IDAHO’S WINTER SNOWPACK
Idaho’s reservoirs are empty, and the success of next year’s growing season depends on winter precipitation. Idaho Statesman; Oct. 6
<http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4760>
IDAHO TRIBE SET TO OPEN $30 MILLION SALMON HATCHERY, FINALLY
After 20 years and millions of dollars in studies, the Nez Perce Tribe in western Idaho will open what is likely the nation’s most-contested salmon hatchery. Spokesman-Review; Oct. 6
<http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4762>
PRIVATIZING WATER
Until two years ago, the last thing the people of Mecosta County, Mich., worried about was their water supply. Mecosta County sits near the center of Michigan’s lower peninsula, which itself sits at the center of the largest supply of freshwater on Earth. But when the Perrier Group of America won permission to drill wells, extract up to 260 million gallons of water per year for free, bottle it, and sell it throughout the Upper Midwest, the people of Mecosta County suddenly had plenty to worry about. A group of residents calling themselves Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation has sued to stop the company, arguing that water, like air, is a public resource — not a commodity. The issue has created so much political unrest that it has divided the state Republican Party and is influencing the 2002 Michigan gubernatorial campaign — and its resolution will have implications not only in the Great Lakes region, but also far beyond.
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/schneider102302.asp?source=daily>
MORE COMMUNITIES PUT THEIR WATER SUPPLIES IN CORPORATE HANDS
Experts predict that by 2015, 65 percent of municipal water supplies in the U.S. will be privately owned, raising the specter of a crucial commodity ontrolled by market forces. Christian Science Monitor; Oct. 24
<http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=5075>
COALBED METHANE INDUSTRY LEADERS DON’T SUPPORT NUMERIC STANDARDS
Numeric standards to ensure water quality are inappropriate for coalbed ethane drillers and might harm other industries, too. A guest column. Billings Gazette; Oct. 6
<http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2002/10/06/build/opinion/guest.inc>
GROUPS SAY METHANE PROPOSAL MIGHT NOT GO FAR ENOUGH
Two Wyoming environmental groups question whether a state proposal to protect ground and surface water from coalbed methane pollution is strong enough and enforceable. Billings Gazette; Oct. 4
<http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2002/10/04/build/wyoming/methane.inc>
PROTECTING CLEAN WATER KEY TO MANAGING MONTANA’S GAS INDUSTRY
Water is Montana’s most precious resource, and the state must protect it as it igures out how to regulate the coalbed methane industry. Billings Gazette; Oct. 6
<http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=4759>
ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP?
The chief executive officer of AngloGold Ltd. said the Cresson (aka Cripple Creek & Victor) gold mine in Teller County,CO is an excellent example of “environmental stewardship.” Interestingly, AngloGold North America agreed just last month to pay the EPA a $125,000 penalty as part of a settlement in a water pollution case at the mine. And environmental groups are currently involved in a federal lawsuit that charges that the Cresson mine is dumping heavy metals and toxic chemicals into surrounding creeks.
<http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E33%257E898812,00.html?search=filter>
COEUR D’ALENE BASIN CLEANUP PLAN DECLARED ILLEGAL BY ENVIRO GROUPS
Six environmental groups declared illegal the Bush administration’s decision to form an Idaho commission to work on the Superfund cleanup of Silver Valley. In a letter to Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, (D-Wash.), the groups asked for congressional oversight and an independent investigation into the legality of the commission. Cleanup will probably be delayed in many areas of the Basin since a House committee just approved an $850,000 two-year study so the National Academy of Science reviews the EPA’s findings.
<http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=100102&ID=s1226613>
FISH FARMS BLAMED FOR SALMON DECLINE
A study has linked the “near collapse” of wild pink salmon runs in the Broughton Archipelago of British Columbia to sea lice infestations intensified by fish farms in the area says the National Post 9/25. According to the biologist who did the study, almost 30 fish farms clustered near the spawning streams have “created a perfect winter breeding ground for sea lice.” A coalition of environmental groups is threatening to “take legal action” against the Canadian and provincial governments for failing to control “open-sea fish farms they say are threatening the survival of wild salmon” reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer 9/26.
FISH FARMS ON TRIAL
Two of Maine’s largest salmon farms are in court to answer charges by U.S.PIRG that their operations violated the Clean Water Act and threaten the state’s coastal resources and endangered wild salmon says the Portland Press Herald 10/8. Conservation groups are pushing for “tighter controls” on fish farms and calling for a ban on the use of European genetic strains of salmon which they contend can escape and “breed with wild salmon, potentially weakening the ability of wild species to survive and rebuild.”
FARMED VERSUS WILD SALMON
Two new studies from Canada and Scotland indicate that salmon raised in fish farms have significantly higher levels of dioxins, chlorinated pesticides, and PCBs than their free-swimming counterparts. Both studies, conducted independently and published in recent issues of the environmental science journal Chemosphere, trace the source of the contamination back to commercial salmon feed.
Even Alaskan wild salmon, considered among the cleanest fish in the world, are known to contain persistent organic pollutants at levels sufficient to raise contaminant levels in the lakes into which they migrate and spawn. Fish — farmed or wild — are vulnerable to toxic contamination because watery environments enhance the ability of persistent organic pollutants to biomagnify. (The principle of biomagnification refers to the fact that persistent organic pollutants, such as PCBs or dioxins, concentrate as they move up the food chain.)
<http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/bcerf>
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=604>
SALMON-EATING WOLVES DOCUMENTED
For the first time, a University of Victoria graduate student has verified that wolves along the British Columbia coast catch and eat salmon says the Vancouver Sun 10/14. Previously, scientists believed that wolves “lived on an exclusive diet of deer and other terrestrial animals” but the new evidence indicates that the coastal wolves, “thought to be morphologically, behaviorally and ecologically distinct,” eat salmon as well as “mussels, clams and barnacles.”
MISSOURI RIVER CONSERVATIONISTS CONSIDER LEGAL REMEDIES
A coalition of environmental groups concerned with the Missouri River is considering legal action that would force the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release water down the river next spring to build sandbars and provide a reproductive trigger for fish and habitat for endangered birds. Eric Eckl, spokesman for American Rivers, says the conservation community filed notice of intent to sue a number of years ago, but then things looked like they were going to improve, so legal action was not pursued. But conservationists are concerned by an exchange of letters between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which results in a delay in the release of water down the Missouri River in the spring to the benefit of endangered species.
<http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2002/2002-10-03-09.asp#anchor6>
TAP WATER QUALITY
Contaminants found in the tap water in California’s largest cities could pose risks to children, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems, according to a new study from the Natural Resources Defense Council. The findings in the report, “What’s on Tap,” were the result of a review of tap-water data from 19 cities in the U.S., but so far only the California results have been released; Los Angeles and San Francisco were among the municipalities whose water supplies were found to be tainted by deteriorating pipes and pollution from farm and industrial sources. The study also noted the presence of arsenic and the chemical perchlorate in the drinking water of Los Angeles and San Diego, respectively, although both levels were within federal limits. Fresno’s water gave even more cause for concern, with traces of nitrates, pesticides, and industrial chemicals. The release of the report coincides with an upcoming California ballot measure that would authorize water-treatment funds.
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=634>
SCIENTISTS FIND HERBICIDE CAUSES FROG SEX CHANGE
One of the world’s most popular weedkillers, atrazine, is common in water and could be having a sex-change effect on amphibians, according to a new report published in Nature. American scientists have discovered a strong link between atrazine and hermaphrodite tendencies observed in wild leopard frogs across the U.S. Midwest. In one watershed researched, 92 percent of the male frogs had been feminized in water with just 0.1 parts per billion of the chemical. The U.S. EPA allows 3 parts per billion in drinking water.
<http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/10/10312002/reu_48843.asp>
EPA OFFICIAL DEFENDS BUSH’S PROPOSED CUTS IN WASTEWATER, SEWAGE CLEANUP PROGRAM
The Bush administration’s chief enforcer of the three-decade-old Clean Water Act concedes its goal of making all rivers and lakes safe for swimming and fishing has fallen in priority to combating terrorism and righting the economy. “Because of the war on terrorism and the economy, … we’re standing on our request” of $1.21 billion for modernizing sewage treatment and storm water runoff systems, G. Tracy Mehan III, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Assistant Administrator for Water, told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
<http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/10/10092002/ap_48647.asp>
On a related issue, high-priority toxic waste clean-ups at seven sites in the U.S. will be left incomplete this year due to Superfund funding shortages, according to a report by the U.S. EPA’s Inspector General.
ANNIVERSARY REPORT
On the anniversary of the Clean Water Act, Clean Water Network and the Natural Resources Defense Council released Clean Water at Risk: A 30th Anniversary Assessment of the Bush Administration’s Rollback of Clean Water Protection. Read the report on-line at:
<http://www.cwn.org/docs/30th/cwa30_cwn.pdf>
MAJORITY OF COMPANIES, WASTE TREATMENT PLANTS EXCEEDING EPA POLLUTION PERMITS, STUDY FINDS
Four of five wastewater treatment plants and chemical and industrial facilities in the United States pollute waterways beyond what their federal permits allow, according to government data compiled by an environmental group. More than 90 percent of the plants and facilities in Ohio, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Iowa, Puerto Rico, Maine, West Virginia, Delaware, New York, and Connecticut exceeded permit limits between 1999 and 2001, said the report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
<http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/10/10182002/ap_48747.asp>
BOTULISM HITS ERIE
Thousands of dead fish and birds littering the Lake Erie shoreline are victims of a deadly botulism outbreak. The botulism and the lethal toxin it produces have killed mainly freshwater drum, a common fish species also known as sheepshead, and gulls. Scientists suspect Lake Erie’s waters have turned deadly because the introduction of alien species such as zebra mussels has dramatically upset the lake’s ecosystem.
<http://www.canoe.ca/LondonNews/lf.lf-10-09-0048.html>
SLUDGE SPILLS INTO W. VA. STREAMS
About 100,000 gallons of coal slurry gushed into two streams after a waste pipe burst at a coal preparation plant, killing fish and raising concerns about the water supply. State regulators ordered Bandmill Coal Co., a subsidiary of Massey Energy Co., to shut down the plant until the spill is cleaned up. After Tuesday’s spill, dead minnows were reported in the Guyandotte River and Rum Creek, and investigators were trying to gauge the extent of environmental damage.
<http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Slurry-Spill.html>
LEBANON TAPS RIVER AT THE CENTER OF ISRAEL ROW
Lebanon began pumping water from a southern river that also supplies Israel — a project that has drawn Israeli ire and U.S. mediation to avoid a regional flare-up. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told parliament in Jerusalem that Lebanon’s new project to pipe water from the Wazzani River to parched villages could lead to an escalation of hostilities between the countries, which have no relations.
<http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/10/10172002/reu_48733.asp>
HEZBOLLAH LEADER VOWS QUICK RETALIATION IF ISRAEL ATTACKS WAZZANI WATER PROJECT
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah vowed his guerrilla group would respond against targets in Israel within minutes if Israel attacked the Wazzani water pumping project near the border in southern Lebanon. He said any such attack would “would open the entire northern front.”
<http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/10/10162002/ap_48722.asp>
LEBANON TO APPEAL TO U.N. OVER ISRAEL WATER DISPUTE
Lebanon said it was sending data to the United Nations to back up its case in a dispute with Israel over plans to pipe water to dry southern villages from a river that the Jewish state also needs. “Lebanon has decided to send its technical legal file regarding its use of water from the Wazzani River to the United Nations,” Lebanon’s national news agency reported.
<http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/10/10082002/reu_48624.asp>
ISRAELI MINISTER BANS PALESTINIAN WATER DRILLING
A far-right Israeli Cabinet minister has ordered a stop to all water drilling by Palestinians in the West Bank, accusing them of drawing illegally from hundreds of wells and depleting supplies in the parched region. The Palestinian Water Commissioner denounced the decision by Israeli Infrastructure Minister Effie Eitam, saying it was part of what he called the Israeli government’s “war” against the Palestinians. “They want us to be thirsty,” said the Commissioner, Fadal Kawash.
<http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/10/10242002/ap_48800.asp>
INDIAN STATES IN TUMULT OVER RIVER WATER DISPUTE
Officials from two southern Indian states appealed for calm to prevent ethnic clashes after rowdy protests over sharing river water between these top investment destinations. Demonstrations peaked in the southern state of Karnataka, whose capital Bangalore is India’s technology hub, after the Supreme Court ruled it must release water from the Cauvery to neighbouring Tamil Nadu under a federal order.
<http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/10/10082002/reu_48625.asp>
MORE EFFORT NEEDED ON WATER ACCESS, SAYS U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY O’NEILL
U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill repeated the need for international development efforts to focus on access to clean water in developing nations, going so far as to suggest picking a single country as a test case of what could be done. “For example, let’s say we identify a country with, say, 20 million people, half without clean water. That would be a sufficient demonstration so that when we succeed, no one could say it was a hot-house, one-of-a-kind experience,” O’Neill said in remarks delivered to the Millennium Water Challenge symposium.
<http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/10/10092002/reu_48643.asp>
NWISWEB DATA FOR THE NATION
This web site provides access to water-resources data collected at approximately 1.5 million sites in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The USGS investigates the occurrence, quantity, quality, distribution, and movement of surface and underground waters and disseminates the data to the public, State and local governments, public and private utilities, and other Federal agencies involved with managing our water resources.
<http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis>
