Two Intermountain West rivers make the Most Endangered list

Posted: 07/01/2010
Author: Merritt Frey

American Rivers has released the 2010 edition of America's Most Endangered Rivers and two of the rivers -- the Teton and the Upper Colorado -- are Intermountain West Rivers.

This is the 25th year for the America's Most Endangered Rivers report. Each year, the report features threatened rivers and provides the public action steps they can take to make a difference at a key decision point about the future of the river. When I was at Utah Rivers Council, we nominated Fish Creek for the report, and made the list (a sad victory in some ways). The resulting press and direct action from the public really made a difference in our work to stop a proposed dam in the Creek's headwaters.

Idaho's Teton River is one of the featured western rivers this year. The Teton is an incredible river...in some ways incredible for how little-known it is. Amazingly, the river is threatened by a dam proposal -- despite the fact that a previous dam on the river failed dramatically in the 70s, killing 11 people and wreaking havoc in downstream communities. Check out the link above for a beautiful and thoughtful video from Trout Unlimited about the Teton and the dam proposal.

The second featured western river is the Upper Colorado. No surprises here I suppose -- stretches of the Colorado could make the list every year. The Upper Colorado was listed this year due to two water withdrawals proposed in the upper reaches of the river.

The best thing about the Most Endangered Rivers report? American Rivers makes sure each threatened river has a timely and important action item for the public to engage on. That means you! The easy online system helps you speak out for the rivers in seconds or minutes...so speak now for the Teton!

By the way, I have a clear Intermountain West bias. Here is the complete list:

  • Upper Delaware River, PA/NY
  • Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, CA
  • Gauley River, WV
  • Little River, NC
  • Cedar River, IA
  • Upper Colorado River, CO
  • Chetco River, OR
  • Teton River, ID
  • Monongahela River, PA/WV
  • Coosa River, AL
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Submitted by Anonymous on July 6, 2010 - 9:31am.

Endangered Rivers

Merritt, thanks for keeping this highly visible. The headwaters of the Colorado River are now subject to 2 proposals for additional trans-basin diversions -- one from the Colorado River east to the Fort Collins area, and a second from the Fraser Rivers east to the Denver area. The folks doing the NEPA analysis are avoiding any analysis of cumulative impacts, probably because it would reveal how ugly the 2 proposals really are. Combined with present diversions, we would see a total of 80-90% of our west-slope water diverted east.

Obviously the loss would be catastrophic. Lucky for us now, the NEPA analysis is so deeply flawed we believe both projects will have enourmous challenges just getting final EIS documents in place -- already years late and millions of dollars over budget. Our hope is that our river-protection community will recognize this as a great opportunity to challenge the fundamental perversion of trans-mountain diversions.

I learned some new tools at River Rally 2010 that i hope to use to fight for the Endangered Colorado River. Thank you River Network!

...geoff elliott

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