WASHINGTON, DC, October 3, 2002 (ENS) - 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.
In a September 27 letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director of the Mountain-Prairie Region, Division Engineer Brigadier General David Fastabend says "unanticipated delays in the release of the final EIS [Environmental Impact Statement] for the Missouri River may preclude our agency from completing a final Record of Decision prior to spring 2003."
Fastabend assures the Service that endangered terns and piping plovers had a good reproductive season in 2002, and that there will be enough water to sustain the Corps' commitment under the Service's biological opinion and to satisfy its "Reasonable and Prudent Alternative."
Replying October 1, Fish and Wildlife Service regional director Ralph Morgenweck concurred with the Corps that foreseeable drought conditions in the basin next year would preclude higher spring flows on the river.
The conservation community accepts this assessment, said Eckl, noting that Service's Biological Opinion did not ask for increased springtime flows during years of drought or flood.
But river advocates pointed out that the Service appears to have also given the Corps a pass on the requirement to reduce flows next summer - a step required each year regardless of rainfall levels.
Defenders of the status quo say low summer flows on the Missouri could threaten city water supplies, reduce power plant capacity, and halt river navigation. But conservationists maintain that none of these predictions materialized this summer, despite dry conditions that kept water levels low.
Drought is merely the Army Corps' latest rationale to stall delivery of its new "Master Manual" guiding dam operations, American Rivers says. "Ecologically and economically straightforward, revisions have been mired by political controversy for 11 years due to fierce opposition from downstream shipping and agribusiness interests."
"Does the Army Corps want us to believe that they need rain to put ink in their printer cartridges to finalize the operations plan?," asked Chad Smith, director of American Rivers' Nebraska Field Office. "The Fish and Wildlife Service had not asked for a spring rise under drought conditions anyway."
"Without new scientific information, the Fish and Wildlife Service has no justification for letting the Corps off the hook on low flows next summer," Smith warned. "We're running out of faith that the agencies have the will to manage the Missouri River like it's 2002 and not 1960, and we'll be reviewing our options for seeking a remedy in court.":
