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- Meet Serena our dam removal expert
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River (and dog) friendly gardens

Posted on May 31, 2007 | Filed Under Clean Water, Northwest, Water Conservation

Amy Kober
Northwest Outreach & Communications Director

Here in Seattle we’re finally getting some warm weather, and our garden is in full bloom.

Our dog Queets likes to hang out with us outside, so to keep him healthy we don’t use any pesticides or chemicals (which, in addition to endangering pets and people, can wash into local streams, polluting the water and harming salmon).

Our garden is still a work in progress, but we’ve had fun planting native shrubs (like Oregon grape, red flowering currant, salmonberry, snowberry, elderberry and serviceberry) that don’t need as much water, as well as drought-tolerant plants like lavender.

We also got a rain barrel to help conserve water. Contrary to popular belief, Seattle is very dry in the summer!

Maybe one of these days we’ll plant a rain garden…Gary has some great posts about that.

I’m almost done planting the veggie starts Bonnie brought into the office.

She keeps us well-fed with homegrown organic spinach, onions, lettuce, basil, tomatoes and squash from her farm on the Nooksack River.

The big challenge will be keeping Queets from eating the tomatoes…

Let the mountains talk, let the river run… — David Brower

Posted on May 31, 2007 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“Let the mountains talk, let the river run. Once more, and forever.” — David Brower

* The Skykomish River (pictured here) was listed as one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2005, threatened by runaway development. Read an update on the Skykomish and endangered rivers.

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

Wall Street Journal gets it wrong on dams

Posted on May 30, 2007 | Filed Under Dam Removal, Global Warming, Northwest, River Renewal

Amy Kober
Northwest Outreach & Communications Director

The Wall Street Journal online is running a misguided opinion piece about dams and global warming that mentions American Rivers.

Here’s the long version of the letter our president Rebecca Wodder is submitting to the paper in response:

To say that all dams are beneficial and should be protected, as Shikha Dalmia maintains (“Dam the Salmon�?, May 30, 2007) is as absurd as saying all dams are bad and should be removed.

American Rivers has signed dozens of agreements enabling hydroelectric dams to continue generating thousands of megawatts of electricity on rivers around the country. We have even supported expanding electricity generation at some dams.

But some dams are being removed because they are public safety hazards or they are no longer cost-effective for their owners to operate.

For decades, hydro dams have been subsidized by taxpayer dollars, and are now used to subsidize all sorts of private interests.

Are the readers of the Wall Street Journal supposed to be horrified when an outmoded 100 year-old factory closes its doors? Of course not.

But that’s exactly the sort of irrational economic logic Ms. Dalmia proposes should protect all hydro dams into the infinite future.

On the Klamath River, the California Energy Commission found that with the money PacifiCorp would spend to modernize the dams, the company could replace the entire Klamath project generation with a 170 megawatt wind plant, a 100 megawatt solar plant, or it could make efficiency upgrades to its distribution system.

In short, removing the Klamath dams can be done without increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

This is not about people vs. the environment, no matter how hard Ms. Dalmia tries to make it so. Communities up and down the Pacific Coast depend upon restoring rivers like the Klamath.

When the commercial fishery had to be shut down last year because of poor salmon returns, it caused more than $100 million in damage to local economies. Four different tribes depend on the Klamath salmon for their subsistence and identity.

Unfortunately, Ms. Dalmia seems less interested in reducing global warming pollution than in throwing out baseless and tired claims about conservationists.

Rebecca Wodder
President, American Rivers

For more on rivers and global warming, read our factsheet (PDF)

Wild rivers are earth’s renegades… — Richard Bangs

Posted on May 30, 2007 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“Wild rivers are earth’s renegades, defying gravity, dancing to their own tunes, resisting the authority of humans, always chipping away, and eventually always winning.” — Richard Bangs

* Thousands of our country’s outstanding rivers are vulnerable to threats from pollution, development and new dam construction — one of these rivers could be in your very own backyard. Our Wild and Scenic River Citizen Guide is a resource to help you protect the rivers you love with a Wild and Scenic designation.

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

What’s your river story?

Posted on May 29, 2007 | Filed Under Dam Removal, Northwest, River Renewal, Stories

Amy Kober
Northwest Outreach & Communications Director

American Rivers is getting ready for a staff retreat in June, and as part of the retreat Brad (of Cheat River fame) and I are going to lead a “storytelling training.�?

In our work, it’s important to be a good storyteller. Your listener’s eyes will quickly glaze over if you go on and on about FERC, SEPA, section 404, evolutionarily significant units, and the natural hydrograph (apologies to my colleagues who get excited about the natural hydrograph).

But tell a personal story – make it real — and your listener will be engaged and inspired.

I was recently down on Oregon’s Sandy River, where Marmot Dam and Little Sandy Dam (pictured here) will soon be removed. Being there reminded me of another dam – Edwards Dam – which was removed from Maine’s Kennebec River back in 1999.

I remember that morning. It was July, hot and humid. We had all gathered on the riverbank in Augusta to witness the removal of the 160-year old dam. The whole town had turned out for the event. The Boy Scouts sold doughnuts. Women were dressed for the occasion in dangly fish earrings. Reporters and camera crews jockeyed for position.

After the speeches, the dignitaries rang a ceremonial bell, which triggered the church bells at St Augustine’s to start tolling. The bells signaled the end of the dam and the rebirth of the river.

The bells rang and rang as the backhoe started to dig out the dirt coffer dam that was holding back the river. We stood on metal folding chairs so we could get a better view.

We leaned forward, watching. Waiting. And suddenly the water gushed through and a huge cheer rose up from the crowd, as the Kennebec River, for the first time in 160 years, ran free. I felt the rush physically– shivers ran down my back. All around me were the whoops and laughter of people whose lives, whose histories, whose futures are tied to the river.

After the ceremony the crowd gradually filtered away to a party. But I didn’t want to go. I just wanted to sit there on the bank, listening to the river’s new-found voice, watching the simple yet amazing sight of the Kennebec’s swirly currents moving downstream toward the sea.

So, there you have it — my dam removal story. I’m looking forward to acquiring other river restoration stories, on the Sandy, White Salmon and Elwha rivers…and some day on the Klamath and lower Snake.

How about you? Do you have a river restoration story? A childhood river memory? A favorite river place?

What’s your river story?

The Staten Island Bluebelt: natural stormwater management and flood control

Posted on May 29, 2007 | Filed Under Flood Protection, Government Affairs, River Renewal, Sewage

Joyce Wu, Program Associate
Natural Flood Protection

Reading Katherine’s post on Representative Bishop’s Sewage Right-to-Know bill, which was introduced last week, I was reminded of an interesting project on Staten Island for which a comprehensive stormwater and sewage management system was designed around wetlands.

Staten Island was the last of New York City’s five boroughs to be urbanized. The southernmost part of Staten Island-South Richmond-was notable for being the last area within the New York City limits to both have large stretches of vacant land and to lack system-wide stormwater or sewage infrastructure.

As late as the mid-1970s, South Richmond still had significant amounts of open space. Scattered, low-density, and largely uncontrolled development since then damaged the region’s wetlands, reducing their natural capacity to drain stormwater. This, coupled with South Richmond’s reliance on inadequate on-site sewage treatment mechanisms, resulted in flooding in South Richmond from even small storms.

The adverse effects of stormwater runoff range from economic to health hazards. Fertilizers and pesticides can poison aquatic animals and lead to toxic algae blooms. Insecticides, paint, used motor oil and other auto fluids drain off of impervious surfaces and into drinking water. Livestock can contaminate waterways with bacteria, making them unsafe for human contact. In some cases, leaking and poorly maintained septic systems overflow with raw sewage.

Preliminary efforts in the 1970s to find a more natural solution to the stormwater problem led to the 1990 creation of a comprehensive drainage management plan called the Bluebelt program. This idea combined creating a sanitary sewer system with preserving a bluebelt-a naturally occurring contiguous system of ponds, wetlands, and streams. Sewers convey stormwater to streams and wetlands down a natural drainage corridor for preliminary treatment in structural detention areas, settling ponds, sand filters, and constructed wetlands. The stormwater then empties into natural wetlands for additional treatment and storage. The Bluebelt system is designed to minimally impact existing natural areas, part of which have been incorporated into a 430-acre wildlife refuge.

Providing stormwater drainage for about a third of the island, the 10,000-acre Bluebelt has also saved the municipality tens of millions of dollars. Even accounting for land acquisitions, implementing the Bluebelt plan cost some $50 million less than a conventional underground network of storm sewers. The effectiveness of the Bluebelt in meeting both the functional and aesthetic needs of the community has increased its popularity among residents of Staten Island. The initial Bluebelt projects, completed in 2002 and 2004, were expanded to include a third watershed in 2006.

Sources on the Staten Island Bluebelt:

www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/storm/chap6.asp#SI
www.stormwaterauthority.org/library/view_article.aspx?id=529
www.gradingandexcavation.com/sw_0106_toc.html
www.stormh20.com/sw_0311_restoring.html

We have to reject the duality that suggests we cannot maintain the beaty and richness of the world… — Jim Norton

Posted on May 29, 2007 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“We have to reject the duality that suggests we cannot maintain the beauty and richness of the world while simultaneously living in it. We can have a vision of rivers as both utilitarian and healthy. In fact, we should demand it because it can be done…Your support of American Rivers, now and in the future, is a critical affirmation of our right, and endowment of our capacity, to preserve our choices, to define ourselves. ” — Jim Norton

*Learn how you can support American Rivers.

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

I choose to listen to the river for a while, thinking river thoughts… — Edward Abbey

Posted on May 28, 2007 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“I choose to listen to the river for a while, thinking river thoughts, before joining the night and the stars.” — Edward Abbey

*Share your river thoughts with family and friends with an American Rivers eCard.

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

Legislative Water Week Finds Eddy After Great Ride

Posted on May 25, 2007 | Filed Under Clean Water, Dam Removal, Government Affairs, Green Infrastructure, Sewage, Wild and Scenic

Peter Raabe, Policy Director for Budget and Appropriations
Government Affairs

From where I sit in our offices in Washington, D.C., I can watch the planes fly away from National airport… many of them have Members of Congress and Senators on them as they wing off to their home states for the recess week. I can only hope that some of them will be spending some of their time along their local river enjoying a cold beverage or a BBQ with friends and family.

Today is the end of a long stretch of work for Congress; there has been a good bit of movement on positive river related bills. And, this week has been particularly busy- starting with the introduction of the Clean Water Restoration Act on Tuesday, then the introduction of the Raw Sewage Community Right to Know Bill, and lastly the House mark up of the Fiscal Year 2008 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.

Alright, I gotta tell you that this bill is pretty darn OUTSTANDING! Earlier this week I was hoping for a BILLION dollar increase, but it got better… there is a $1.5 BILLION increase over last year! And that is no chump change. The biggest reason for this overall increase is due to the Chairman of the subcommittee, Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA). He has been a strong advocate for several years on the need for more money to be invested in the environment and now that he had the power, he made it happen.

Many of the details of the bill are still not all that clear since it has not been released to the public yet, but here is some of what we know on the river front: The EPA overall was appropriated $8.1 billion- the second largest budget for the agency ever. The Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund received $1.125 billion, an increase of more than $40 million over FY 07 and within those funds is a set aside for non-structural green infrastructure. Also in the EPA, the bill restores the Targeted Watershed Program by providing $25 million this year for grants to communities and technical assistance.

Other highlights of the bill are full funding for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Fish Passage Program which should include full funding for the Open Rivers Initiative; at least $2 million for the Partnership Wild and Scenic Rivers program in the National Park Service; and an increase of $13 million for the Forest Service’s recreation management which covers the management of their Wild and Scenic Rivers.

For details about some of these programs see the FY 08 River Budget.

The last, and one of the more pleasantly surprising, aspects of the bill is $50 million for the EPA to lead a new temporary Commission on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation. The commission will use $5 million of those funds to organize itself and to identify what immediate steps need to be taken for us to begin adapting to and mitigating for the affects of global climate change. The additional $45 million will be distributed as grants to various federal agencies to begin implementing those recommendations.

It has been a good week for rivers in Washington, D.C.

River 2.0 toolbar aggregates news, blog posts and blogosphere

Posted on May 25, 2007 | Filed Under Technology

Chas Offutt, Director of Internet Strategy
Technology & Rivers

I have to own up, as we’re thinking about creating online benefits for our members, subscribers and activists, Oxfam had a great idea: an organization-centric toolbar.

I loved the thought and given the fact that we’re hungry for feeds, a customized Conduit driven toolbar would be a great vehicle to communicate with our audience. I’ve been impressed with Conduit’s flexibility as well as the reporting functionality which allows administrators to view the activity of users (no personal information is shared).

In essence, our river 2.0 toolbar is a personalized news reader for our audience to stay informed of what’s happening in the river community. The American Rivers toolbar will allow our audience to:

Receive breaking river news
Follow national river stories as they develop
Get instant access to our site(s) from any site on the web
Search Google (or another search engine) from anywhere on the web
Keep updated on the weather anywhere in the world
Includes a cookie cleaner, a history cleaner, and a cache cleaner

And, unique to river conservation…

Learn what people are saying about America’s rivers in the blogosphere

keep looking »

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