Will Congress Exempt the Missouri River from the ESA?

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Will Congress Exempt the Missouri River from the ESA?

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Will Congress Exempt the Missouri River from the ESA?

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Jun. 26 -/E-Wire/-- Basking in accolades for protecting citizen enforcement of the Endangered Species Act, the House of Representatives now seems prepared to backslide - acting to prevent the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from meeting its ESA obligations. Late yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee approved language introduced by Iowa Representative Tom Latham (R-5th) to block the Corps from preparing a new plan for operating six dams on the Missouri River that are driving three species of wildlife towards extinction and costing the region billions of dollars in lost recreational and tourism opportunities.

Representative Latham inserted the legislative language - known as a "rider" -- into the FY 2002 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act on behalf of the heavily subsidized commercial shipping industry that transports a tiny amount of cargo on the river between St. Louis and Sioux City. Following expected approval on the House floor, the issue will come to a head when the House and Senate meet to reconcile their different versions of the bill.

"This rider will prevent the Corps from completing its river restoration plan and presenting it to the public for comment," said American Rivers President Rebecca R. Wodder. "By cutting out the public in this way, the House is catering to a special interest and cutting out due process."

"The American people know that species can be saved without harming the economy; Congress must not adopt piecemeal exemptions to the Endangered Species Act," said Brock Evans, Executive Director of the Endangered Species Coalition.

The politically well-connected barge industry wants to stop the Corps from implementing recommendations made by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that would briefly interrupt commercial navigation in late summer most years. The Service's biological opinion, released last summer, called on the Corps to release more water from its dams in the spring and reduce flows in the summer to prevent the extinction of the pallid sturgeon, interior least tern, and piping plover. Representative Latham's rider would prevent the Corps from meeting this obligation by not authorizing the agency to spend money to complete or hold public hearings on its plan to comply with its ESA requirements.

More natural flow patterns would improve habitat conditions in the river for the endangered species and also improve the river's appeal as a recreational destination. Even in its impaired condition, the river generates nearly $90 million in economic benefits from recreation and tourism. The barge industry, in contrast, generates just $6.9 million in economic returns - less than the federal outlays for maintaining the shipping canal. Despite industry claims to the contrary, Corps studies indicate that mimicking natural flows would not interfere with floodplain agriculture or increase flood losses.

"The Missouri River barge industry wouldn't survive without taxpayer handouts, now they want a free ride from the Endangered Species Act, too," said American Rivers President Rebecca R. Wodder.

For more information about the "Spring Rise" and American Rivers' efforts to restore the Missouri River, point your browser to http://www.americanrivers.org/missouririver/default.htm.

http://www.americanrivers.org/missouririver/default.htm

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