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CNN Live Today

American Rivers Group Publishes Endangered Rivers Report

Aired April 02, 2002 - 12:40   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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: You have heard the phrase "a river runs through it." Well, many rivers actually, and some of them are in trouble. The group American Rivers has published its annual list of endangered rivers, and this year it is butting heads with the Army Corps of Engineers.

CNN Environment Correspondent Natalie Pawelski bringing us up to speed. I thought the Army Corps of Engineers was supposed to help preserve environments?

NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN ENVIRONMENTAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, well, they do, they say, and they don't, if you talk to the group American Rivers.

LIN: Well, there you go.

PAWELSKI: It is in this report. Yes. It all depends on who is doing the talking.

So it is a tale of troubled waters all across the United States, from Alaska to Florida. Dams, drilling, and development among the culprits in this year's "Most Endangered River Report," from the environmental group American Rivers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAWELSKI (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 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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAWELSKI: Another issue for the Apalachicola, American Rivers says, is the growing demand for water hundreds of miles up stream, right here in Atlanta. A reminder of how, when it comes to rivers, no matter where you are, we all live downstream.

LIN: Yes, we sure do. All right. Thanks Natalie. We all enjoy the environment, so keep those rivers clean and growing.

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