Conservation Groups Run St. Louis Radio Ads to Support Missouri River Dam Reforms

(11 Oct., 2000 — Lincoln, NE) Environmental Defense and American Rivers will run radio commercials in St. Louis to support Missouri River dams reforms designed to help recreation and river wildlife.

The commercials will run on KTRS on Thursday through Sunday.

President Clinton last week vetoed the Army Corps’ annual appropriations bill because a rider would prevent the Corps from reforming Missouri River dam operations to increase spring releases, a change scientists say is needed to avoid the extinction of three federally-protected species.

Although some Missouri politicians contend the spring rise will increase flood losses, Army Corps studies show the dam reforms supported by the Clinton Administration would not measurably increase flooding or interfere with efforts to drain floodplain farms.

“This is a blessed case where we can save endangered species with virtually no costs and a lot of economic benefits,” said Tim Searchinger, a senior attorney for Environmental Defense.

River scientists say that increased spring flows are needed to provide a reproductive cue for the endangered pallid sturgeon, and to build the sandbars used by nesting least terns and piping plovers. Lower summer flows would ensure that sandbars remain dry during the nesting season, and provide shallow water for young fish.

Suspending barge traffic for six weeks during the summer would preserve Missouri River barge navigation in the spring and fall — when farmers use the Missouri to ship goods ? and would benefit Lower Mississippi River navigation, according to Corps studies.

More natural flows would also aid recreation in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa ? where recreation already produces twice as many annual economic benefits as barge traffic.

“The Missouri River is simply more valuable to Missouri when it is managed to aid recreation and river wildlife,” said Chad Smith, Director of American Rivers’ Missouri River campaign.

Other efforts to save the federally protected species have failed, according to federal scientists, and more species may need federal protection unless dam operations are improved. More than 30 Missouri River species are on state and federal watch lists.

The following is the text of the commercial:

“The Missouri River. The river of Lewis & Clark. But so degraded, you probably never use it. Thirty species of wildlife face extinction. Sacrificed for a barge a day. Upstream, where the river’s healthier, it’s an economic engine, but in Missouri, it’s an economic bust.

Now a turning point has come. A chance to restore the Missouri not just to save wildlife but to make it a river Missourians use to fish and boat and explore.

Some barge interests want to stop even modest reform, and will make up almost any story. They claim reforms would cause flooding, but the experts say they’re just plain wrong.

President Clinton has stood up for balanced reform. The Post Dispatch agrees and says our state politicians should stop squabbling. But some politicians put special interests ahead of Missouri’s interests.

Tell them to support reform. It’s good for our state. To learn more, contact the Conservation Federation of Missouri at 800-575-2322.

This message brought to you by Environmental Defense and American Rivers.”

For more information, visit www.americanrivers.org or www.environmentaldefense.org on the World Wide Web.

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