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CNN Live At Daybreak
2002 Most Endangered Rivers List by American Rivers
Aired April 02, 2002 - 06:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In the United States, the group American Rivers has released its annual report of the nation's most endangered rivers. The group is highlighting 11 rivers it says are facing serious environmental threats.
CNN's Natalie Pawelski brings us that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One of the nation's longest waterways, the Missouri, tops this year's list of endangered rivers.
REBECCA WODDER, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN RIVERS: Corps of Engineers has managed it for decades in a way that is just draining the life out of this river.
PAWELSKI: Of course the Corps in question, the Army Corps of Engineers, which operates dams on the river, disagrees.
LT. GEN. ROBERT FLOWERS, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Missouri River is critical to the life of the people in the Midwest. And we work very hard to balance the competing interests of the river.
PAWELSKI: The Corps of Engineers is also blamed for threatening the No. 2 river on the list, the Big Sunflower in Mississippi. At issue, the proposed Yazoo Pumps Flood Control (ph) project.
WODDER: They would destroy 200,000 acres of wetlands in this one project.
FLOWERS: The Yazoo project will provide flood relief for those people in the delta.
PAWELSKI: Since it builds and operates dams and changes how rivers run, the Army Corps of Engineers is a long standing target for environment groups like American Rivers which compiles the annual endangered rivers lists. But there are other issues highlighted in this year's report too.
Take the No. 3 river, the Klamath. Farmers and wildlife advocates are battling over who gets water in times of drought. Agricultural pollution lands the Kansas River on the list. Another Army Corps of Engineer's proposal, an irrigation project, earns Arkansas' White River a spot. A natural gas drilling boom is at issue for Wyoming's Powder River. And growth and development may threaten Georgia's Altamaha.
WODDER: Between the kind of pollution that comes off of our streets and our fields and the kinds of demands that we're putting on our rivers for more and more water, for more and more power, I think the trend lines are not good.
PAWELSKI: Maine's Allagash may lose its designation as a wild and scenic river. In Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, drilling plans could affect the Canning River. Developers are trying to divert water from Texas' Guadalupe River. And for Florida's Apalachicola, yet another Army Corps of Engineers' dredging project is stirring debate.
Natalie Pawelski, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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