Facebook Twitter Email
APRIL 11, 2001

The environmental group American Rivers today releases its list of the nation's most endangered rivers but one critical to tribes in the Northwest has been dropped while another essential to a tribal water rights settlement in Colorado has been added.

Last year, the group named the Lower Snake River in Washington as its most endangered river. Specifically, it cited four federal dams on the river as significant threat to the treaty rights of four tribes in the Pacific Northwest and the commercial fish economy.

Various species of salmon in the river as listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

But since the federal government, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, last December finalized a salmon recovery plan, the group has dropped the river. Calling the plan a sign of "some progress," the say the four dams might be removed in the next few years.

The river may soon appear on the list, though, now that President George W. Bush is in charge. While campaigning last fall, Bush said he opposed breaching the dams.

Leaders of the Confederated Umatilla Tribes of Oregon, the Yakama Nation of Washington, The Warm Springs Tribes of Oregon, and the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho have called for breaching as essential to protecting their fishing rights under treaties signed in 1855.

This year, the group has added the Animas River in Colorado to its list, coming in as the 9th most endangered. The list cites the controversial $450 million Animas-LaPlata dam project pushed through Congress last year by Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) as the culprit.

According to the group, the project is "disguised as a tribal water right settlement" and will threaten endangered fish as well as ancient Puebloan burial sites.

First authorized in 1968, the project has changes in scope over the years. It has since come to encompass the water rights settlement of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Southern Mountain Ute Tribe. It also affects the New Mexico portion of the Navajo Nation.

Environmentalists last fall criticized Campbell for adding provisions to the bill requiring the tribes to spend more of their settlement money in concert with non-Indians. They say the changes have made it less and less a true tribal settlement, which Campbell has denied.

Citing a need to fulfill its trust obligations, the Department of Interior's fiscal year 2002 budget released on Monday includes a request to make an initial payment of $6 million to the tribes. But American Rivers President Rebecca Wodder says there should be a better way to honor the nation's responsibilities than building a dam.

"We must honor Ute tribal water rights in a less environmentally damaging and costly way," says Wodder.

The Full List:

• Missouri River
• Canning River
• Eel River
• Hudson River
• Powder River
• Mississippi River
• Big Sandy River
• Snoquamie River
• Animas River
• East Fork Lewis River
• Paine Run
• Hackensack River
• Catawba River

Get the Report:
Most Endangered Rivers of 2001 (American Rivers 4/10)

Get the 2000 Update:
Updates on the Most Endangered Rivers of 2000 (American Rivers)

Relevant Links:
The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission - http://www.critfc.org

Related Stories:
Dam breaching put off in final plan (12/22)