Protecting Rivers & Your Clean Water
Susquehanna Fish Diseased Yet The River Is Not “Impaired”
Liz G. Deardorff, Director, Clean Water Program Pennsylvania
May 13, 2013 | Water Pollution, Urban Rivers
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved Pennsylvania’ Department of Protection list of impaired waterways disappointing advocates for a healthy Susquehanna River.
Read more »A Miner’s Take on Mining the Boundary Waters
Jessie Thomas-Blate, Coordinator, Most Endangered Rivers
May 8, 2013 | Most Endangered Rivers, Water Pollution
My wife, Pat, and I stopped by the South Kawishiwi River last week. The river current is starting to take out the ice in the narrows, and in a few days we'll have a canoe in the water again.
We see evidence of exploratory drilling for copper-nickel mines, but spring load limits are on some of the roads so we won't see the big rigs moving for a few days. So far, the drilling has confirmed that the Duluth Complex is a low grade ore body in a high grade environment— Superior National Forest.
Protecting Special Places is Important for Local Businesses
Jessie Thomas-Blate, Coordinator, Most Endangered Rivers
May 1, 2013 | Most Endangered Rivers, Water Pollution
The resort lies across the river from the Twin Metals sulfide metal mining exploration area, which caused the Boundary Waters to be declared one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2013. Visitors do not come here to listen to the drone of drills and heavy equipment going on across the lake in an area considered “ground zero” for sulfide mining exploration.
Read more »Legal Victory for Clean Water Act Permitting
Stacey Detwiler, Associate, Conservation & Government Relations
April 26, 2013 | Water Pollution
On Tuesday, the EPA won a legal victory for its ability to veto permits for projects with significant adverse impacts that discharge “dredge or fill materials,” such as mining waste from mountaintop removal mining, into streams and rivers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned a lower court’s ruling that the EPA did not have the statutory authority to revoke a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit that allowed operators of the Spruce Mine in West Virginia to discharge mining waste into local streams.
Read more »Fishing on the Kootenai is Threatened by Coal Mining
Jessie Thomas-Blate, Coordinator, Most Endangered Rivers
April 26, 2013 | Most Endangered Rivers, Water Pollution
Fishing on the Kootenai is Threatened by Coal MiningThere is major concern for the health of the valley’s beautiful Elk River and the downstream Kootenai River (or Kootenay to Canadians). What is now a world-class fishery with amazing dry fly fishing could in the next few years see drastic changes.
Read more »Save the Solitude of Shepherd Bend
Jessie Thomas-Blate, Coordinator, Most Endangered Rivers
April 25, 2013 | Most Endangered Rivers, Water Pollution
Shepherd Bend is a large, forested bend on the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River in a remote location with little development, other than some riverfront homes. Folks who live on Shepherd Bend and across the river from it chose to live there because of the peace and quiet, the scenery, and to enjoy the river. It is not uncommon to find local children swimming and fishing in the river. You can always find locals fishing along the river’s banks under large, overhanging trees.
Read more »Two Special Southern Oregon Creeks
Jessie Thomas-Blate, Coordinator, Most Endangered Rivers
April 25, 2013 | Most Endangered Rivers, Water Pollution
Rough & Ready Creek and Baldface Creek are the most amazing streams you’ve probably never heard of. They both flow through an area of exposed peridotite in southern Oregon, and share a common ridgeline. Rough & Ready Creek flows south into the well-known Wild and Scenic Illinois River, upstream of the commonly boated Illinois River Canyon. Baldface Creek flows west into the North Fork of the Smith River, which later enters California and the spectacular Smith River system.
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