Welcome Audio

Authors
- Meet Amy our Northwest river expert
- Meet Betsy our national water policy extraordinaire
- Meet Chas our social media and technology evangelist
- Meet Darcy our Washington state water policy expert
- Meet David our wild & scenic river guru
- Meet Gary our video and stormwater guru
- Meet Jamie our blue trails expert
- Meet Jenny our Southeast water efficiency expert
- Meet John our Hydropower Reform Coalition director
- Meet Katie our Great Lakes stormwater management expert
- Meet Katherine our river advocacy director
- Meet Lindsay our daily river quotes and web editor
- Meet Matt our our Southeast blue trail & hydro guy
- Meet Rebecca president of American Rivers
- Meet Serena our dam removal expert
Categories
Stay Informed via RSS
Archives
River Photos
Blogroll

Flooding and Raw Sewage

Posted on July 22, 2008 | Filed Under Clean Water, Flood Protection, Global Warming

Katherine Baer, Senior Director
Clean Water Program

We just released American Rivers eight point flood response agenda as recovery from the devastating midwest floods begins. As my colleague Will Hewes reports, sewage treatment is yet another flooding casualty:

—-

The flood waters that devastated the Midwest last month have receded, and the long process of recovery is underway. While the news headlines have been filled with stories about rebuilding homes and planting new crops, one piece of the clean up that has slipped under the radar is the repairs to the many sewage treatment plants that were inundated by high water. A couple of weeks after the worst of the flooding was over, five communities in Iowa alone still did not have functioning sewage treatment facilities. Cedar Rapids was dumping its sewage directly into the Cedar River. The Town of Anamosa’s treatment plant sustained extensive damage which will cost $3 million and take at least three months to repair. Officials estimated it would take two weeks just to restore primary treatment. That means sewage with little or no treatment will plague Iowa’s rivers for some time to come.

The recent floods aren’t something you see every day, but such extreme storms are becoming more frequent as global warming continues to take hold. There is an increasing likelihood that, in addition to other damages, sewage treatment plants will be knocked off line more and more as the planet warms. This means that communities struggling to upgrade infrastructure will have to find scarce funds to pay for emergency repairs to sewage treatment plants and that we are likely to see raw sewage flowing into waterways across the country for weeks and months at a time following these major floods, with serious consequences for human health.

Yet another reason to cut our carbon emissions now and protect natural floodplains and wetlands before floods of raw sewage become a common occurrence.

[A river] has a life, a character, a voice of its own… — Henry van Dyke

Posted on July 21, 2008 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“[A river] has a life, a character, a voice of its own, and is as full of good fellowship as a sugar-maple is of sap. It can talk in various tones, loud or low, and of many subjects grave and gay…For real company and friendship, there is nothing outside of the animal kingdom that is comparable to a river.” — Henry van Dyke

* Take action today to help protect the rivers you love.

River Quotes are posted weekday mornings. Want to see your favorite river quote here? Email it to lmartin@AmericanRivers.org.

River Day at Riverside Park: North Branch Susquehanna Paddle

Posted on July 21, 2008 | Filed Under Blue Trails, Events, Mid-Atlantic, River Heritage

Jamie Mierau, Director
Blue Trails, River Heritage

Come out join a scenic 12-mile paddle trip on the North Branch Susquehanna River on Saturday, July 26. Paddlers will meet at Riverside Park in Tunkhannock at 9:00 a.m. and be shuttled up river to Mehoopany and paddle back to Riverside Park in Tunkhannock, PA.

There will be music at the park that afternoon and evening along with educational and environmental exhibits. A free demo kayak paddle, sponsored by Endless Mountain Outfitters, will take place at the park from 4:30-5:30 p.m. The Tunkhannock Riverside Park Committee will have food for sale.

Reservations are required so visit Endless Mountain Outfitters or call 570-746-9140 today!

The call of the river is a complexity of motion… — Page Stegner

Posted on July 18, 2008 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“The call of the river is a complexity of motion and sound which extracts from mere mortals the wildest diversity of emotional response. Awe, dread, tranquility, devotion, ecstasy. The river is an abstraction of universal force.” — Page Stegner

* Learn more about our work in your region.

River Quotes are posted weekday mornings. Want to see your favorite river quote here? Email it to lmartin@AmericanRivers.org.

When a fishing trip turns into a paddle trip

Posted on July 17, 2008 | Filed Under Blue Trails

Matt Rice, Associate Director of Southeast Conservation
Southeast Hydropower & Blue Trails

I must admit fishing is the purpose of most of the river trips I go on. Outside of whitewater boating, I rarely paddle just to paddle. The other day I went on a river trip (fishing trip) on the Congaree River. I planned to fish and paddle the first section of the Congaree River Blue Trail. I shuttled my truck to the take out and eventually made it back to the put in where I had dropped my kayak. Immediately after launching, I saw smallmouth bass in the shallow water around the shoals. I knew it was going to be a good day. On my third cast, part of the tip section of my three piece fly rod flew out with the line. It was one of those unexplainable breaks. Old rod, weak spot, who knows. Usually I have at least two rods with me but not today. Already committed on the river, my fishing trip turned into a paddle trip.

Although I was disappointed at first, it ended up being a great trip. I found I enjoyed paddling without the self imposed pressure of fishing immensely. I noticed things I would not have noticed if I had had a fly rod in my hand, I swam, I explored islands with my dog, I sat in the sun. Does this mean I will be leaving the fly rod at home occasionally? Probably not, but I will make a conscious effort on fishing trips to put the rod down more often and to enjoy the river simply for being a river.

Have you ever lost, forgot, or broken something in the beginning of a trip which forced you to look at or do things differently?

Men travel far to see a city, but few seem curious about a river. — H.S. Merriman

Posted on July 17, 2008 | Filed Under Events

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“Men travel to see a city, but few seem curious about a river. Every river has, nevertheless, its individuality, its great silent interest. Every river has, moreover, its influence over the people who pass their lives within sight of its waters.” — H.S. Merriman

* As Director of our Blue Trails program, Jamie Mierau gets to paddle amazing rivers across the country. But recently she took time to enjoy her hometown river, the Potomac. More

River Quotes are posted weekday mornings. Want to see your favorite river quote here? Email it to lmartin@AmericanRivers.org.

Fort Halifax Dam removal begins this week

Posted on July 16, 2008 | Filed Under Dam Removal, Events, Hydropower, Northeast, River Renewal

Serena McClain, Associate Director of River Renewal
River Renewal, Restoring Rivers

“Patience and perserverence have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” John Quincy Adams

A decade-long fight ended this week as removal began on the Fort Halifax Dam on the Sebasticook River in Maine. As the years dragged on, this battle became about more than honoring an agreement signed in conjunction with the removal of the Edwards Dam. It was about the struggle to restore the native fisheries of the Kennebec and Sebasticook Rivers and a desire to inject new life into these riverfront communities. In the years following the removal of the Edwards Dam, adult American shad have been migrating past the former Edwards site and are now spawning below Fort Halifax. The restoration effort is important not only for the ecological and environmental benefits of restored migratory fish populations, and for the recreational and commercial fisheries that target those fish, but also for the very real economic and social benefits that have begun to develop in the Waterville/Winslow area. People are using the river!

(Fly fisherman at the Fort Halifax Dam removal site.)

The removal of the Fort Halifax Dam is a win-win-win situation for migratory fish like the American shad, for the ecology of the river, and for the local communities they support.

When the dust starts to settle, it is our hope that the river will heal any battle wounds and that soon our friends on the Sebasticook will speak of the flourishing environment much the way our friends on the Kennebec have.

Water is the most critical issue of our lifetime… — Luna Leopold

Posted on July 16, 2008 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“Water is the most critical issue of our lifetime and our children’s lifetime. The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on the land.” — Luna Leopold

* A recent Washington Post article reports that enforcement of the Clean Water Act is declining, making our communities increasingly at risk from flooding and pollution. More

River Quotes are posted weekday mornings. Want to see your favorite river quote here? Email it to lmartin@AmericanRivers.org.

Afternoon on the Potomac

Posted on July 15, 2008 | Filed Under Blue Trails, Mid-Atlantic, River Heritage

Jamie Mierau, Director
Blue Trails, River Heritage

Last Friday, a friend and I sneaked out of work early for a quick paddle on the Potomac. It was a gorgeous day. Not too hot or humid, very unusual for this time of year. I am very fortunate, in my line of work I get to paddle amazing rivers across the country. But every time I spend time on my backyard rivers I am reminded of how incredible these resources are. I have lived in Washington for eight years now and I still haven’t gotten tired of my backyard rivers - and I don’t think I ever will.