U.S. Water News Online
ST. LOUIS -- A consortium of farm interests, navigators and others whose livelihoods depend on the Missouri River said they plan to file suit over the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to alter the flow of the river to protect two bird species.
The Coalition to Protect the Missouri River said it intends to sue the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Corps of Engineers and state fish and game agencies in North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana. Federal law requires 60 days' notice before a suit against the federal government. About a dozen other groups are also joining in the lawsuit.
The group is taking issue with efforts to protect two endangered shorebirds under the Endangered Species Act. The coalition claims navigation was shut down and economic losses suffered when the corps said in July it could not move the birds to accommodate the release of additional water from two dams.
Barge traffic along the Missouri dropped in anticipation of lower water levels.
``This has created a situation where there is such great unreliability on the river right now, particularly for economic stake holders,'' coalition director Randy Asbury said. ``It's an economic catastrophe.''
The group represents thousands of farmers, municipalities, utilities, and recreation, environmental and industrial interests.
Asbury said between the first week of July and the middle of August, the lower water levels yielded an estimated $7 million in losses, from farmers unable to ship grain to hotel barges canceling excursions.
``There is a conflict between the Endangered Species Act and other congressional acts out there. We believe the corps should have released water,'' Asbury said.
The wildlife service has ordered the corps to return the river to a seasonal flow that would make the river higher in the spring, lower in the summer, or risk violating the Endangered Species Act. The service says that, otherwise, entire species of birds and fish may disappear.
In October, the corps announced there would be no spring rise in 2003, partly because of a widespread drought shrinking basin reservoirs. The wildlife service said the corps would not be violating the Endangered Species Act because the service seeks a spring surge once every three years, on average. As long as a spring rise occurs in 2004 or 2005, the wildlife service said it would be satisfied.
Asbury said Missouri River stake holders in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri fear these higher water levels in the spring could contribute to flooding. Shippers and farmers say the lower summer flows would halt grain shipments along the waterway for good.
A wildlife service spokeswoman said the service would prefer to have endangered birds live in the wild rather than captivity.
Corps spokesman Paul Johnston called the effort to find common ground between economic and wildlife interests ``a delicate balancing act -- sometimes we achieve what we want. Sometimes we don't achieve it. That achievement is frequently in the eye of the beholder.''
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