Missouri River scientists yanked off project

By Libby Quaid, Associated Press Writer | Thursday, November 06, 2003

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WASHINGTON — In a move that may block changes to the Missouri River's flow, the Bush administration yanked the government scientists who had ordered the switch off the yearslong river project and is bringing in a new team.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has resisted making changes to how it manages the river, is under a December deadline to come up with a new operations plan that follows the Endangered Species Act.

Now, a different team of scientists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will say whether the corps can avoid major changes — such as a previously ordered switch to a more natural spring rise and low summer flow — and still comply with the act.

"The corps is legally obligated to make these flow changes because the Fish and Wildlife Service has said it needs to do so," Tim Searchinger, an attorney for the conservation group Environmental Defense said. "What appears likely to happen is that the Fish and Wildlife Service will have its mind changed for it."

The Fish and Wildlife Service said critics were jumping to conclusions.

"Obviously, that's prejudging what's going to happen here, and there has been no prejudgment of what's going to happen here," said Hugh Vickery, a spokesman for the Interior Department, which includes the service. "The bottom line is, this will go where the science leads. There is no predetermination."

It is the latest development in a long-running battle over management of the nation's longest river, which stretches 2,341 miles from Montana to St. Louis, where it empties into the Mississippi.

The old team of scientists said three years ago the Missouri needs a more natural spring rise and low summer levels to comply with the ESA, and their findings were confirmed by the National Academy of Sciences. Current operations were put into place before the river's sturgeon and shorebird species made the government's threatened and endangered species list.

But the corps resisted, and the Bush administration postponed the changes and is seeking a new "biological opinion" from the wildlife service. This process began during legal wranglings last July that resulted in a contempt citation of the corps from a federal judge who ordered the changes; the court action was subsequently postponed.

Vickery said one of the new team leaders, Robyn Thorson, is regional director of the Service's Big Rivers-Great Lakes region in Minnesota, which includes a portion of the Missouri. The other leader is Dale Hall, regional director of the agency's Southwest Region in Albuquerque, N.M.

Corps spokesman Paul Johnston said the wildlife service and its biologists are experts at doing this kind of work: "I would assume they will assemble a competent team."

But conservation groups reacted angrily to the maneuvering, saying the administration is obviously trying to avoid changing to a more seasonal ebb and flow to benefit birds and fish.

"In a month's time, a group of people that knows nothing about the Missouri are supposed to write a credible biological opinion? Give me a break," Chad Smith, spokesman for the group American Rivers, said.

Smith said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to bring in a new team of scientists will erase more than a decade of expertise on the waterway and its native species.

The issue is about more than flooding along the lower reaches of the river, which could happen with a seasonal flow, or the survival of native wildlife. Powerful economic and political interests also are at stake.

The dams and reservoirs that control the river's flow, in Montana and the Dakotas, contribute to a multimillion dollar boating and fishing industry.

Below the southernmost dam, Gavins Point on the South Dakota-Nebraska border, grain-laden barges carry multimillion dollar cargo toward the Mississippi River at St. Louis. Barges need consistent depths to operate, but the industry says low flows that would follow a spring rise would halt shipments for good.

On the Net:

Army Corps of Engineers: http://www.usace.army.mil/

Fish and Wildlife Service: http://www.fws.gov

American Rivers: http://www.americanrivers.org