Protecting Rivers & Your Clean Water
Maintain Protections for the Merced River
Jessie Thomas-Blate, Coordinator, Most Endangered Rivers
April 29, 2013 | Floods & Floodplains, Most Endangered Rivers, Wild and Scenic Rivers
Highlighting this remarkable network as the most iconic river of the Golden State, the Merced tumbles out of Yosemite Valley and into the Sierra foothills— its protection the result of a popular groundswell and decisive congressional agreements in both 1987 and 1992.
Escaping the rancor that typifies political debates today, this system of protected waterways has never faced a serious effort to undermine its meaning or effectiveness. Until now.
Read more »Don’t Damage the Wild and Scenic Merced River
Jessie Thomas-Blate, Coordinator, Most Endangered Rivers
April 29, 2013 | Most Endangered Rivers, Floods & Floodplains, Wild and Scenic Rivers
Based on our 40 years of experience fishing and paddling the Merced River, we fully agree with American Rivers on including the Merced River as one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2013. The Merced Irrigation District’s (MID) proposal would raise the storage reservoir (in the wettest years) by 10 feet, and flood part of the Merced that is protected by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
Read more »Healthy Rivers Make Colorado Healthy
Matt Niemerski, Director, Western Water Policy
April 27, 2013 | Most Endangered Rivers
Gov. John Hickenlooper has launched a state rebranding initiative, Making Colorado, to stimulate the state’s economy, streamline statewide programs, and reintroduce the state to the rest of the world. Through April 30, the initiative is seeking state residents’ input on what it is that makes Colorado, Colorado.
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 »Don’t Bury My River
Jessie Thomas-Blate, Coordinator, Most Endangered Rivers
April 26, 2013 | Most Endangered Rivers, Floods & Floodplains
My wife and I started visiting the Lazy River Acres area in Knox County, Nebraska in 1971. We bought property adjacent to the Missouri River and built a house in 1977. Since that time, our family has enjoyed the quiet company of the Niobrara and Missouri Rivers.
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 »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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