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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Rivers In Trouble, Group Says Conservation Group Seeks Help For ‘Endangered’ Idaho Rivers

Associated Press

A conservation group contends dams, pollution, agriculture, logging and overdevelopment endanger 10 Idaho rivers, including two also included on a national list.

“Many rivers that are not on the 1997 most endangered list still deserve citizen concern and help,” said Wendy Wilson, executive director of Idaho Rivers United. “But these 10 rivers need the attention and concern of all Idahoans.”

At a news conference Wednesday, the group’s Liz Paul said, “If we don’t take some action … we will turn around one day and learn we have lost those rivers.”

The Idaho list, issued in conjunction with the American Rivers’ ranking of the nation’s most endangered streams, is topped by the middle stretch of the Snake River and forks of the Clearwater River. Both made American Rivers’ second-tier list of the nation’s 20 most threatened rivers.

The stretch of the Snake that runs through southern Idaho between Milner Dam and King Hill is characterized as severely degraded by six dams, irrigation diversion, farm runoff and discharges from fish farms. The Clearwater’s forks, the group contends, are threatened by unsustainable timber harvest and road construction on unstable slopes.

Idaho Rivers United cited these problems with other Idaho rivers:

The Bear River in southeastern Idaho is “dammed and diverted for power and irrigation, grazed to its banks and used as a garbage dump.”

The Big Lost River in central Idaho is the victim of the Moore Diversion below Mackay Dam, which “sends most of the water into the Eastside Canal - virtually drying up the Big Lost River.

The Boise River, from Lucky Peak Dam to the Snake, “is being loved to death. Poor planning and zoning, federally funded flood insurance and outdated FEMA flood plain maps have encouraged rampant building in the flood plain.”

The Bruneau and Jarbidge rivers in southwestern Idaho, threatened by attempts to establish an expanded Air Force training range. “The wilderness character of the Owyhee Canyonlands is in danger of being shattered by the supersonic sounds of thundering military jets.”

The Coeur d’Alene River, endangered by waste from a century of heavy metal mining in North Idaho’s Silver Valley. “These toxins now pollute the rivers and lakes of the Coeur d’Alene/Spokane watershed and endanger the health of the 500,000 people and the fish and wildlife that call this area home.”

The Payette River in western Idaho, where development is “cropping up all along the river. There are virtually no planning and zoning laws to manage this growth …”

The Portneuf River in southeastern Idaho, where silt and sediment from erosion due to agriculture and other uses have left “an impaired river system.”