ST. LOUIS, Missouri, December 17, 2002 (ENS) - A coalition of Missouri River stakeholders has filed a notice of intent to sue state and federal agencies over actions aimed at protecting threatened and endangered species on the river. The coalition is comprised of farmers, navigators, municipalities, utilities, recreation and environmental interests and industry. The groups say that actions mandated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and State Fish & Game Agencies under the Endangered Species Act, shut down navigation on the river and led to severe economic losses for coalition members.
The notice of intent to sue, issued Monday, charges that:
Economic impacts were not properly considered when designating critical habitat for the piping plover The USFWS's alternative for operation of the Missouri River will eliminate navigation and interfere with power, water supply and flood control The Corps and the USFWS must revise or remove operational mandates under the Endangered Species Act since new information shows that endangered and threatened birds have rebounded and meet or exceed certain recovery objectives There is no basis for a mandated spring rise since one already exists on most of the Missouri River The management of the upstream reservoirs to support non-native fish is illegal Hybrid sturgeon may have been caused by the stocking program rather than habitat concerns The coalition includes the Coalition to Protect the Missouri River; the Illinois Corn Growers Association; the MO-ARK Association (aka the Missouri-Arkansas River Basin Association); the National Corn Growers Association; Blaske Marine, Inc.; ConocoPhillips; Ergon Asphalt & Emulsions, Inc.; Koch Materials Company; Magnolia Marine Transport Company; Memco Barge Line, Inc.; RiverBarge Excursion Lines, Inc. and the Terminal Grain Corporation.
The coalition stands in stark contrast to conservation groups and scientists who argue that maintaining the Missouri River for transportation is devastating the river's ecosystem. Earlier this year, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences issued a report warning that the Missouri River ecosystem faces the prospect of "irreversible extinction of species."
Almost three million acres of natural riverine and floodplain habitat along the Missouri River's mainstem have been altered through land use changes, inundation, channelization, and levee building, the committee said. Of the 67 native fish species living along the mainstem, five are now listed as rare, uncommon, or decreasing across all or part of their ranges.
One of these fishes, the pallid sturgeon, and two bird species, the least tern and piping plover, are on the federal Endangered Species List. The flies that provide food for Missouri River fishes have been reduced by 70 percent.
Reproduction of cottonwoods, once the most abundant tree species on the floodplain, has almost ceased.:
