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Inside This Issue River Crossings - Volume 17 - Number 1 - January/February 2008 River Crossings - Volume 17 - Number 1 - January/February 2008 Volume 17 January/February 2008 Number 1 __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Reader’s Survey diversion project in Mississippi’s Yazoo But the Corps maintains that the project pro- River Basin carries a $220 million price tag vides vital flood protection and an economic It’s been some time since we conducted and has the potential to destroy as much as boost for a region that desperately needs it. our last Reader’s Survey, and with a new 200,000 acres of bottomland forest and other And the project’s powerful congressional Coordinator coming onboard patron, Sen. Thad Cochran soon, we felt it appropriate to of Mississippi, the Senate’s ask our readers for input as to top Republican appropriator, how we’ve been doing. So shares the Corps’ view. In please take a few moments of fact, Cochran has helped pro- your time to provide feed- vide about $50 million over back on the enclosed form or the years to get the project send a note by return email to back on the Corps’ drawing [email protected]. As always, board. your input will help River Crossings remain focused View of seasonally flooded bottomland hardwood forest in the Pearl River In a statement, Cochran and meeting your needs in Basin, Louisiana and Mississippi. (Louisiana State University Photo.) called the project “the last keeping you abreast of impor- leg” in a long-sought flood tant natural resource issues in control plan for his state, not- the Mississippi River Basin. So please let wetlands in the alluvial plain of the Lower ing that the delta region has endured nearly a us know what you like, what you don’t like, River Mississippi Delta. century with inadequate protection. It was, and what you’d like to see more of in future issues of River Crossings. Inside This Issue Thanks in advance for helping to keep us on point! Reader’s Survey 1 Coal Mine Runoff Filter 10 Yazoo Backwater Project Revived 1 Invasive Species and Botulism 10 Chris O’Bara Levee Mania 3 Ballast Tank Seawater Flush 11 MICRA Chairman UMR Barge Traffic Down Again 3 Zebra Mussels Reach West Coast 11 Gulf Dead Zone Progress Delayed 4 Bugs Used to Fight Invasives 11 Green Development and Runoff 5 Non-Native Fish Impact Western Rivers 12 Yazoo Backwater Project Revived High Atrazine Levels in Waterways 5 NGA Invasive Species Recs 12 Test for Hormonal Effect of Pesticides 6 Ammonium Rain and National Parks 14 The U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers (Corps) Cumberland River/Wolf Creek Dam 7 Support for AL Sturgeon Listing 14 has once again pulled the Yazoo Backwater MO Dam Collapse Settlement 7 Economic Benefits of Wildlife Refuges 15 Pumps Project (first crafted in 1941) off Billion Dollar Reservoir Lawsuit 8 Endangered Species Meddling Lawsuit 15 the shelf and the U.S. EPA and the Interior KS/NE Water War 8 Wildlife Law Enforcement Controversy 16 Department are reviewing the Corps’ lat- MT/WY Water War 8 Censorship of Climate Scientists 16 est rendering of the project. Meanwhile, WY Mercury Advisory 9 Meetings of Interest 17 environmental interests have raised signifi- Mountaintop Removal Reconsidered 9 Congressional Action 18 cant concerns because the proposed water- Major KY/WV Coal Settlement 9 1 River Crossings - Volume 17 - Number 1 - January/February 2008 River Crossings - Volume 17 - Number 1 - January/February 2008 after all, the devastating 1927 Mississippi dioxide storage. And even if the Corps Corps’ wetland permits, but the agency has River flood, he said, that “cemented the role keeps its promises to purchase conserva- used the power sparingly — only 11 times of the federal government in understanding tion easements and take other mitigation since regulations giving it that authority took that flooding is a national issue rather than a measures, such steps “could not replace effect in 1979. EPA had in fact opposed the state or local one.” the wetland acreage or functions lost to the Yazoo Pumps project as recently as 2000, Yazoo Pumps,” the letter says. citing its extensive wetlands impacts. But But the Yazoo River Basin is a critical agency spokeswoman Enesta Jones, said backchannel of the Mississippi River, that Among the high-profile critics of the project EPA would give the Corps’ latest proposal a absorbs periodic flood tides of the Missis- is Theodore Roosevelt IV, great-grandson full review. sippi, while augmenting its freshwater flows of the 26th president whose legacy as a during drier times — features which provide conservationist includes the establishment of The FWS also has raised strong doubts about for flow control and flood protection for national parks, forests and wildlife refuges. the Yazoo Pumps project. Tom MacKenzie, other locations in the region such as New Roosevelt and other critics said the Yazoo a spokesman for the FWS regional office in Orleans. pumps project, if approved, would violate Atlanta, said the project’s “negative impact the Bush administration’s “no net loss of on fish and wildlife is larger than the Corps The heart of the Yazoo Pumps Project is wetlands” pledge. Moreover, they say the has acknowledged,” and that the proposed a proposed pumping station — capable of Corps’ assurance that the project will actu- mitigation for wetlands losses “does not moving 14,000 cubic feet of water per sec- ally enhance wetland function is “at best fully offset the negative impacts” of the ond — that would be built atop a levee wall a misleading statement.” “If the [Bush] project. In a 2001 fact sheet stating its posi- separating the Yazoo Backwater Area from administration truly intends to live up to its tion, the FWS expressed concern that the the Mississippi River’s main channel. To goal of no net loss of wetlands, then EPA project “could ultimately reverse the current mitigate the project’s environmental damage, must veto this project and do it now,” said landowner-driven wetland restoration trend the Corps is proposing “nonstructural im- National Wildlife Federation President and ... by increasing drainage for agriculture, provements” that include the restoration of CEO Larry Schweiger. in this instance, to benefit a relatively few more than 62,000 acres of forest and improv- landowners.” ing conditions for fish and waterfowl. But The Clean Water Act allows EPA to veto most of the wildlife habitat that the project would drain or partially drain is on federal property: the Yazoo and Panther Swamp River Crossings National Wildlife refuges managed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Delta National Forest, managed by the U.S. Published by Forest Service. Mississippi Interstate Cooperative Resource Association “The Yazoo pumps would cause catastrophic (MICRA) damage to some of the richest resources in P.O. Box 774 the nation that are under the protection of the Bettendorf, IA 52722-0774 Department of the Interior,” leaders of 13 environmental groups told Interior Secretary MICRA Chairman Dirk Kempthorne in an October letter. The Chris O’Bara, Chairman, West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, Parkersburg Corps acknowledges that the construction of Executive Board water-intake structures for the project would Chris O’Bara, Member at Large destroy as many as 26,000 acres of wetlands. Bobby Reed, Vice Chairman, Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries, Lake Charles But a spokesman for the Corps’ Vicksburg Ron Benjamin, Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee, Rock Island, IL District in Mississippi refuted environmen- Paul Rister, Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee, Vicksburg, MS talists’ claims that more than 200,000 acres Steve Adams, Missouri River Natural Resources Committee, Yankton, SD of wetlands would be drained. “That’s a Brian Schoenung, Ohio River Fish Management Team, Avoca, IN distortion of the facts,” spokesman Frank Jeff Boxrucker, Arkansas River Conservation Committee, Oklahoma City, OK Worley said. “There are actually 200,000 Bill Reeves, Tennessee River Sub-basin Representative, Nashville, TN acres that will remain flooded during the Michael Mac, USGS, Biological Resources Division, Columbia, MO pump operation.” The difference, he said, is Gary Frazer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C. that the Corps — not nature — would deter- Coordinator for Large River Activities mine the extent of the flooding. Vacant, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service MICRA email: [email protected] But project opponents released a second MICRA Web Site: http://wwwaux.cerc.cr.usgs.gov/MICRA/ letter in mid December signed by more __________________________________________________________________________ than 500 biologists, hydrologists and other River Crossings is a mechanism for communication, information transfer, and coordination scientists asking EPA Administrator Stephen between agencies, groups and persons responsible for and/or interested in preserving and Johnson and Kempthorne to halt the proj- protecting the aquatic resources of the Mississippi River Drainage Basin through improved ect. The letter cites benefits provided by communication and management. Information provided by the newsletter, or opinions wetlands in the Yazoo River Basin for fish expressed in it by contributing authors are provided in the spirit of “open communication”, and wildlife habitat, stormwater storage and and do not necessarily reflect the position of MICRA or any of its member States or Entities. treatment, drought mitigation and carbon Any comments related to “River Crossings” should be directed to the MICRA Chairman. 2 River Crossings - Volume 17 - Number 1 - January/February 2008 River Crossings - Volume 17 - Number 1 - January/February 2008 But the Corps maintains that the Yazoo of them.” occurred over the history of flood control Pumps project is needed to protect more than in this country (see Figure above) This is a 1,000 homes, businesses and farms from Source: Daniel Cusick, Greenwire, 12/13/07 major issue that the Clinton White House’s persistent flooding caused by back-channel- Floodplain Management Review Committee ing of the Mississippi River in the Yazoo (i.e.
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