Columbia May Be Part Of Clinton Plan

River conservationists said Wednesday they will push for inclusion of the Columbia and Colorado rivers in a new American Heritage Rivers program President Clinton announced in his State of the Union address.

Clinton directed his Cabinet to develop a system within 90 days to field nominations for the program.

“I will designate 10 American Heritage Rivers to help communities alongside them revitalize their waterfronts and clean up pollution in the rivers, proving once again that we can grow the economy as we protect the environment,” he said in his Tuesday address to Congress.

Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers, said the program will help provide local communities with tools “to take back their hometown rivers.

“It is a fantastic focus on rivers. They have been a national blind spot for a long, long time,” Wodder said in an interview Wednesday.

“It may be the first time in history a president has made this significant an announcement on the environment during the State of the Union,” she said.

Rivers will be nominated by communities for inclusion on the list, which likely will qualify them for special federal financial support, the group said.

“On our proposed list would be the Mississippi, Columbia, Hudson and Colorado. Those rivers clearly played a major role in our cultural and historical development,” said American Rivers spokeswoman Carrie Collins.

Clinton’s river initiative will redirect existing federal resources and expertise to communities to help them protect and restore local rivers.

It’s not clear how this program would differ from the system of National Wild and Scenic Rivers, though the American Heritage Rivers program is not expected to impose any new restrictions on river usage, as wild-and-scenic designation does.

“It is not a regulatory program. It is an empowerment program at the local level,” Wodder said.