ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 17, 1997 TAG: 9704170043
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Mississippi River, a subject of long concern, is not on the list because of closer cooperation among farmers, shippers and conservationists.
Dams, mining, barge traffic, development and even the changing electricity industry all contributed to rivers being named Wednesday to an environmental group's annual list of most-endangered waterways.
The Missouri River was singled out as facing the most severe threat this year.
The main reason: The Army Corps of Engineers continues to manage the river ``to support a handful of barge operators at the expense of a growing recreation and tourism industry,'' the conservation group, American Rivers, said.
While some rivers such as the Clarks Fork in Montana and Chattahoochee in Georgia, prominently mentioned last year, disappeared from the list, others such as the Tennessee River were added to reflect new concerns about recently emerging threats.
``The magnitude and immediacy of threats changes from year to year,'' said Tom Cassidy, a spokesman for American Rivers. ``We try to highlight the magnitude of the threats and also the imminence of the threats.''
He said the selection is made from scores of candidates submitted by conservation groups around the country.
The Tennessee River was added to the list this year because of a desire by the Tennessee Valley Authority to concentrate on electricity generation and leave conservation-related activities to someone else. Congress would have to give TVA permission and presumably would shift those responsibilities elsewhere.
Last year, the Chattahoochee River, which snakes around Atlanta, was singled out because of concern about the impact of the Olympics on sewage being dumped into the river. The Olympics are gone, and so is the river from the list.
Also no longer considered endangered are the American River in California which had been threatened by the Auburn Dam until Congress refused to provide new funds, and Clarks Fork near Yellowstone, which had been listed because of a controversial mining project. The gold mine near Yellowstone is being abandoned.
In Maine, the Penobscot River, which had been listed as endangered for the past seven years, was deleted from the list because negotiations had begun aimed at scuttling a power project that environmentalists believe threatens the waterway. But that decision might have been premature. Cassidy said the talks recently fell apart.
Mill Creek, which flows through the heart of Cincinnati in southwestern Ohio was singled out as this year's most polluted urban river because ``industrialization, urbanization and channelization have eliminated riparian habitat.''
It replaced the Anacostia in Washington, D.C., and the Los Angeles River in California, which received that distinction in recent years but no longer are among the 30 most troubled waterways because some efforts had been made to improve conditions.
The Mississippi River, which has been the subject of long concern because of pollution from chemical plants and agricultural runoff as well as commercial traffic, doesn't make the list either.
Scott Faber, the group's specialist on the Mississippi, said that while ``there are still many threats ... good things are happening'' on the river, including closer cooperation among farmers, shippers and conservationists.
Other rivers on this year's list are:
Upper Hudson River in New York because of PCB contamination.
White Salmon River in Washington state, because of the threat to salmon from a hydroelectric dam.
San Joaquin River in central California because of rapid commercial and residential development.
Wolf River in Wisconsin because of a proposed zinc and copper mine.
Pinto Creek in Arizona because of a proposed copper mine.
Potomac River because of pollution from poultry farms and cattle feedlots in its headwaters and urban sprawl downstream near Washington, D.C.
Lower Colorado River, where demand for low-cost government subsidized water is threatening flows.
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