Summer 2005 News of the desert from the Sierra Club California/Nevada Desert Committee www.desertreport.org BY J E N N I F E R P I T T Is The Lower Colorado River Doomed? he Colorado River looms large in the imagination, F e d e ral Water Management gaining its might in the snowy peaks of the Rocky The legacy of the 20th Century on the Colorado River is a Mountains, crashing downstream with force that system of dams and re s e rvoirs that are capable of storing more than c a rved the Grand Canyon, and wending its way four times the river’s annual average flow. Such vast re s e rves have tT h rou gh the desert all the way down to the Gulf of California. But allowed many straws to be sunk into the river, not just to irr i g a t e by the time it reaches the US-Mexico bord e r, the Colorado has a g r i c u l t u re (more than 3.7 million acres in total), but also to been tamed, looking and acting more like a regulated ditch than a supply the swelling urban populations of Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los wild river. Gone are the huge spring floods, muddy waters, and Angeles, San Diego, and nearly every other city in the southwest, floodplain forests, replaced by steady year- round flows and vast some 34 million people at last count. The Colorado River is used i rrigated alfalfa fields. The little wildlife remaining in this altere d continued on page 15 river clings to remnants of native habitat. The one exception to this description lies at the river’s end. In the delta of the Colorado, below the last dam, the river’s channel BY C O U R TN E Y AN N C O Y L E has narrowed after decades of little or no flow. A series of wet years in the 1980’s and 1990’s sent floods all the way down to the delta, and because the channel is narrow there, the banks flooded, and Chromium 6 burst forth with native cottonwood and willow trees. This Cleanup Affects Native phenomenon was witnessed from just south of Yuma, Arizona, Sacred Site along some 25 miles of river in the United States, on into Mexico, all the way down to where tides from the nort h e rn Gulf of C a l i f o rni a turn the delta’s waters brackish and salt cedar takes over. New information has surfaced revealing major C o n s e rvation groups rallied around the revival in the Colorado cracks in the planning and implementation of the River delta, enthralled with the prospect of saving the unique clean up of the Chromium 6 plume near Needles. native forests that were born in those floods. To date, govern m e n t agencies that manage the river and the use of its water have not been willing to commit to actions that would protect it. S E E PAG E 6 View From The Co-Chair BY E L D E N H U G H E S Why Is The Sierra Club Always Suing Everyone? hy is the Sierra Club always suing every o n e ? comments were submitted in the planning process, but they were A responsible community leader put this treated as though they didn’t exist. No lawsuits have been filed, question to me and he was surprised by my but it would seem that we are approaching a last resort. answer. His impression was that whenever Wa question or obstacle came up, we sued. With this issue of Desert Report, active leadership of the Not so! I explained that a lawsuit is always the last resort after T Desert Committee is passing to Terry Frewin. It is time for the all other avenues have failed. Lawsuits are expensive; time Committee to get new leadership. Terry will do a wonderful job. consuming, and problematical—one never knows how they will I have been a volunteer activist for nearly 30 years and chair of turn out. But, lawsuits are an absolutely necessary tool. the Desert Committee for 10 years. I need to cut back on my Although I used other examples for my questioner, this issue volunteer activities. As I age, I find it harder to both; work for a of Desert Report is full of examples. Under the Bush living, and continue to do as much volunteer work as I’ve done in Administration no plant or animal has been listed under the the past. Endangered Species Act (ESA) except as a result of a lawsuit. No critical habitat has been designated except as a result of a lawsuit. S U M M E R 2 0 0 5 I N T H I S I S S U E Look in the News Items for information on two plants in Utah that grow in only eight tiny locations, on the edge of extinction, IS THE LOWER COLORADO RIVER DOOMED? ............................................11 getting protection from two lawsuits—one to list and one to designate critical habitat. WHY IS THE SIERRA CLUB ALWAYS SUING EVERYONE? ............................12 Look at the article on Guzzlers in the Mojave National EVERYTHING IS STILL HITCHED TO EVERYTHING ELSE..............................13 Preserve. We’ve had the discussions and written the letters with our objections, but the Deputy Secre t a ry of Interior still instructed the National Park Service to violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and ignore the Park Service’s own regulations and policies. Only the threat of a lawsuit forced the start of the NEPA process. Look at the News Update on page 13 on protecting the RESTORATION OF THE KELSO DEPOT NEARLY COMPLETE ........................14 Colorado River from leaking nuclear toxins. The decision had GUZZLER BATTLES CONTINUE ..................................................................15 been to just let it leak until a suit by the Sierra Club and others CHROMIUM 6 CLEANUP AFFECTS NATIVE SACRED SITE ..........................16 refocused the issue. Now the preferred alternative is to move the WHAT FATE FOR SURPRISE CANYON? ......................................................18 uranium tailings. The cost of $400 million is non trivial, but the THE OWYHEE – BEAUTY: ROADS, RIVER, AND SKY....................................10 health of the fish in the river and the 25 million who drink water from the river is also non trivial. Perhaps most of our suits involve the Endangered Species Act. In this Desert Report issue Judy Anderson makes an eloquent statement of the importance of the ESA. As shown above, citizen lawsuits to enforce the act are also critical. The National Historic Preservation Act is usually ignored by the government agencies. The Bureau of Land Management’s THE OWYHEE – POLITICS: THE OWYHEE/BRUNEAU CANYONLANDS..........11 West Mojave Plan ignores route selection that would impact ALIENS IN THE DESERT ............................................................................12 Native American Sacred Sites. The California Desert is one of NEWS UPDATES ........................................................................................13 the world’s great repositories of rock art and native sites. The OUTINGS....................................................................................................16 SOME THOUGHTS ON OFF-ROAD VEHICLES ..............................................18 { 2 } DESERT REPORT SUMMER 2005 BY J A M E S W O O L S E Y MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE Restoration Of The Kelso Depot Nearly Complete he magnificent Kelso Depot, by 43 feet and also contains a basement. A built in 1924, sits in the heart single-story kitchen extension with base- of Mojave Desert along the ment at the rear measures 43 feet by 24 feet. Union Pacific Railroad. The Adaptive restoration work began on the structurTe was nearly lost to neglect but now building in the fall of 2002 after a G the hard work of dedicated citizens who c o n s t ruction contract was awarded to rallied to save the building will be rewarded Pacific General Incorporated. Demolition when it opens as a visitor center for Mojave began with the removal of all interior paint, National Preserve. plaster and lathe from the walls because of Visitors to the Depot often remark on the health risks related to lead based paint the size and elegance of the building, and that was on the walls. This allowed for a wonder why such a substantial structure is more thorough evaluation of the structural located in “the middle of nowhere.” In fact, the building was far aspects of the building’s framework, which revealed some more than a depot. Inside was a restaurant that served meals to problems on the east exterior wall and floor under the old refrig- passengers on trains without dining cars, similar to the famous erated walk-in cooler. It also revealed other surprises in the walls Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe Railroad, and to train crews such as time cards from employees who worked the lunchroom and other railroad employees. Kelso lies at the bottom of the and kitchen, postcards, dry-cell batteries and small wires in the steep Cima Grade, and in the era of steam locomotives helper attic that powered the doorbells in the upper sleeping rooms, and cars were needed to pull trains up the hill. Track had to be the signature of a carpenter who had built the stairs going to the maintained, water acquired, facilities maintained; Kelso soon upper floor (G W…meyer & Sons, K..lso California). developed into a town with the Depot as its hub. During World continued on page 14 War II as many as 1,500 people lived in the town. The economic prosperity that centered around ore extraction from the Vulcan Mine, and the war pushed this country in a new direction, but the closing of the mine, the end of the war, fewer changes of train crews meant Kelso would rapidly wither.