Groups include Snake River on endangered list

BOISE - Blocked by dams and tapped for agricultural use, the Snake River has risen from eighth place in 2003 to third on the list of the nation's most endangered rivers, conservation groups announced Tuesday.

Polluted by waste from more than a century of northern Idaho mining, the Spokane River is sixth on the list by American Rivers.

American Rivers chose to list the Snake River because of the failure of a federal plan to improve river conditions to recover imperiled salmon and steelhead, said Bill Sedivy, executive director for Idaho Rivers United.

"The federal salmon plan has been an utter failure, deemed unacceptable in court," said Rebecca R. Wodder, president of American Rivers.

"If the Bush administration fails to deliver a credible new plan this year, not only will this national treasure slip closer to extinction, but Northwest communities will lose out on the thousands of new jobs and hundreds of millions in economic benefits a restored Snake River and abundant salmon will bring," she said.

Only three sockeye salmon returned to their spawning grounds in Idaho's Stanley Basin in 2003, he said. And although the state has enjoyed several banner years for chinook salmon, the vast majority are hatchery raised.

"As Idahoans know, the mid-Snake in the Twin Falls area has a myriad of problems such as high temperatures and pollution. And there's a crisis in the quantity of water there that the Legislature is just starting to approach," Sedivy said.

"Last, but not least, Idaho Power Co. uses its Hells Canyon dam complex and Snake River as though it was a gas-turbine plant," he said. "When Boise needs power, they just flip the switch and the river levels change dramatically."

The Spokane River receives the mining waste which pours downstream from the Silver Valley and Lake Coeur d'Alene, before flowing into Washington state.

The National Academy of Sciences is touring the basin this week to detail the effects of lead and other chemicals on the water.

Sedivy also said officials are concerned about the potential for polluting the Rathdrum Prairie aquifer beneath the river, the source of drinking water for 400,000 people in Coeur d'Alene and Spokane, Wash.

The Colorado River is listed at the nation's most threatened river this year, reduced to less than a trickle by the time it reaches its delta.

Second is the Big Sunflower River in Mississippi, facing its own pollution problems.

The other rivers on the group's list are the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York, the Housatonic River of Maine and Connecticut, the Peace River of Florida, Big Darby Creek of Ohio and the Mississippi River, which the group said faces "ecological collapse."

Endangered list

American Rivers' list of 10 rivers it says are the most endangered in 2004:

1) Colorado River. Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California.

2) Big Sunflower River. Mississippi.

3) Snake River. Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

4) Tennessee River. Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky.

5) Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York.

6) Spokane River. Idaho and Washington.

7) Housatonic River. Massachusetts and Connecticut.

8) Peace River. Florida.

9) Big Darby Creek. Ohio.

10) Mississippi River. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana.