Mississippi and White Rivers endangered

Pamela Hamilton
dm editor

The Mississippi and White Rivers were ranked the eighth most endangered rivers in the nation by the national conservation organization American Rivers.

The Mississippi River is threatened by a navigation and flood control project that would cause damage to its fishery and wetlands, according to the group's Web site at www.americanrivers.org.

This year the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers will decide whether to expand five locks to accommodate increased barge traffic on the Mississippi River. The American Rivers organization said in a press release that the expansion will cause further harm to the river's fishery and to side channel and backwater habitats.

The organization also contends that the Corps proposal to construct flood control projects and enlarge levees will destroy the river's wetlands.

The White River was ranked because of a possible channelization of the river that would, according to American Rivers, destroy wetlands and threaten commercial mussel beds.

Washington's Snake River topped the list. This year the Clinton administration will decide whether four dams on the Lower Snake River will be removed. The American Rivers organization contends that the removal of the dams will decrease the risk of salmon and steelhead extinction and is a necessary step in salmon recovery plan.

The list, which is released annually by the American Rivers organization, ranks the nation's rivers according to which rivers are suffering the most environmental abuse.

The following recommendations on American Rivers were made to the Clinton administration and Army Corps on the Mississippi and White Rivers projects:

¥ Correcting navigation study errors, revising barge traffic forecasters to reflect recent export trends.

¥ Adequately measuring the impacts of additional barges on fish and wildlife habitat before proposing major new projects.

¥ Increasing funding for Upper Mississippi River habitat restoration to $25 million, and accelerating habitat restoration efforts along the lower Mississippi and coastal Louisiana.

¥ Rejecting the White River navigation project.

¥ Evaluating alternatives to flood control projects.

¥ Supporting the Upper Mississippi River Conservation Act of 2000, which would help reduce the polluted runoff.