The West continues to hold its own in the competition
for the nation’s most at-risk rivers. Five of this year’s top 10
endangered rivers are in the West, according to American Rivers’
annual report, North America’s Most Endangered and Threatened
Rivers of 1997. This year’s 45-page report focuses on threats more
subtle than the untreated industrial waste of the past. Pollution
now comes from farm and mining waste, urban sprawl and dredged
channels and dams. The Missouri River, ranked number one, flows
from Montana to Missouri through five dams and at least 800 miles
of canals. A fifth of the Missouri’s native species have become
endangered or threatened because of the altered flow of the river,
and many riparian species have fallen to 10 percent or less of
their historic population levels, the report says. Washington
state’s White Salmon River, where steelhead and salmon both are on
the verge of extinction, ranks third. The White Salmon is home to
the Condit hydropower dam, which has blocked all fish migration
there. Other rivers making the list include California’s San
Joaquin River, Arizona’s Pinto Creek, and the Lower Colorado River
in Arizona, Nevada and California. For a copy of the report, write
to American Rivers at 1025 Vermont Ave., NW, Suite 720, Washington,
DC 20005
(202/547-6900).
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Threatened Rivers.
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