WSP12258

• File Number: 8021
• Description: Section D General Correspondence - Western States Water Council
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 1/7/1994
• Author: Western States Water
• Title: Western States Water 1994 - Issues 1025-1076
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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TIlE WEEKLY NEWSLE'ITER OF TIlE WESlERN STATES WATER COUNCIL

Creekview Plaza, Suite A-201/942 East 7145 So./ Midvale, Utah 84047 / [phone] / FAX [phone]

Chairman - Dave Kennedy; Executive Director - Craig Bell; Editor - Norm Johnson; Typist - Carrie Curvin

ENVlRONMENTIWATER QUAUlY

Endangered Rivers

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American Rivers, an environmental organization,
has released its 1994 list of the Nation's most
endangered rivers. Seven western rivers are included.
They are, in priority order, together with American
Rivers' reasons for the listings: (1) Clarks Fork of the
Yellowstone River (Wyoming and Montana) - a
proposed gold mine near Yellowstone National Park
could result in significant acid mine pollution; (2)
Clavey River (California) - five dams are proposed for
the last un-dammed river in the Sierra Nevada
mountains; (3) Columbia/Snake River System (Idaho,
Oregon, Washington) hydropower dams,
inappropriate forest practices, and irrigation have
resulted in a significant decline in the wild salmon
population; (4) Missouri River (Montana, North Dakota,
South Dakota, Wyoming) - numerous dams throughout
the Missouri Basin have altered the natural flow of the
river, resulting in endangered populations of fish and
wildlife; (5) Rio Grande (Colorado, New Mexico, Texas)
- some cleanup efforts have been successful, but
remaining threats range from toxic mining problems to
sewage and chemical pollution along the U.S-Mexico
border; (6) Thome River (Alaska) - logging practices
threaten to destroy wildlife habitat, fillthe river with silt,
and choke prime salmon habitat; and (7) Virgin River
(Nevada, Utah, Arizona) - competing demands from
three states threaten heavy use of the river while
endangered species populations decline.

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Unfunded Federal Mandates

Nebraska Governor Benjamin Nelson testified
March 22 before the House Science Investigations and
Oversight Subcommittee on unfunded federal

en.vironmental . mandates, He said, . "There is a
massive resistance effort now underway at all levels of
state and . local government" opposing additional,
unfunded federal mandates. He asserted that such
mandates can harm state programs by forcing matters
of high priority to be leff unaccomplished, while
matters of lower priority are addressed. He used as
an example monitoring and regulating the Salt River in
Arizona for maintaining fishable/swimmable water
quality when the river is nearly always dry. He pointed
out the folly of the federal government trying to
mandate "one-size-flls-all" regulations, making
reference to the sparse demographics in some areas
of his own state, and said that the federal contribution
to state environmental programs has decreased from
an historic level of over one-third of funding to less
than 15% in 1991. However, Congress has enacted
about forty statutes imposing new regulations and
mandates on the states since 1990.

Governor Nelson said "federally imposed unfunded
mandates are the singie most imponant issue facing
the nation's governors...... On behalf of NGA, he
urged Congress, in reauthorizing federal environmental
statutes, to: (1) require EPA to conduct risk analysis
and estimate costs to provide for informed rulemaking;
(2) considerthe cumulative effects of its requirements;
(3) incorporate flexibility by measuring results, rather
than prescribing methods, and extending that flexibility
to a state's use of funds; and (4) fully fund the
governmental costs of all federal initiatives.

WATER QUAUlY

Clean Water Act - Reauthorization

In preparation for committee markup of the bill,
scheduled to begin early in May, House Public Works

,