Protecting Rivers & Your Clean Water
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 »Rough & Ready Creek is Too Special to Ruin
Jessie Thomas-Blate, Coordinator, Most Endangered Rivers
April 25, 2013 | Most Endangered Rivers, Water Pollution
According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, “[Laura] Skaer [of the Northwest Mining Association] says it may be appropriate to remove some special places from mineral entry, but thinks it should only happen after a thorough mineral survey has taken place.”
In that case, the Northwest Mining Association will be very pleased to know that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has, in fact, done a “very thorough mineral survey” at Rough & Ready Creek, one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2013.
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.
Read more »Sulfuric Acid Can Really Ruin a Vacation
Jessie Thomas-Blate, Coordinator, Most Endangered Rivers
April 24, 2013 | Most Endangered Rivers, Water Pollution
Many of us fondly remember the children’s book Paddle to the Sea, in which a native boy carves a toy model of an Indian in a canoe and sets it free to travel from Lake Nipigon through Lake Superior to the St. Lawrence Seaway. I was captivated by the adventures along the way – wild animals, sawmills, ship’s locks, forest fires, shipwrecks – but the story was also my introduction to the concept of watersheds.
Read more »Cleanup the Coal Ash!
Jessie Thomas-Blate, Coordinator, Most Endangered Rivers
April 24, 2013 | Most Endangered Rivers, Water Pollution
Thirteen years ago, when my husband and I built our house on Mountain Island Lake, I thought the smokestacks of Duke Energy’s Riverbend Steam Station were nothing more than an eyesore. Over these past 13 years, a lot has changed. I’ve given birth to two children, watched my mother battle cancer, and then battled it myself. Spurred by those life-changing events, I’ve become more educated and aware about what is going on around me. I now know that Riverbend doesn’t just mar my lake view. It jeopardizes our entire community.
Read more »Response to Duke Energy’s Statement on the Catawba River Coal Ash Ponds
Jessie Thomas-Blate, Coordinator, Most Endangered Rivers
April 24, 2013 | Most Endangered Rivers, Water Pollution
It is our understanding that Duke Energy issued a preemptive statement on April 16, 2013 in anticipation of American Rivers’ designation of the Catawba River as one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers®. Rick Gaskins, Executive Director and Catawba Riverkeeper, provides a section-by-section response to Duke’s statement below in italics.
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