America's finest rivers awash with raw sewage

[lovuian]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=629160

America's finest rivers awash with raw sewage
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
14 April 2005


Back in the mid-1950s US President Dwight Eisenhower used to travel to the Fraser River in Colorado to spend his summers fishing for trout. He was such a regular visitor and an avid fisherman ­ typically casting a Red Quill fly ­ that the Byers Peak Ranch where he used to stay became known as the Western White House.

But now the Fraser River on which the President spent his afternoons fishing the cold, clear waters is imperiled like never before. Having long been plundered by the regional water board, the 30 mile stream was yesterday named in a report as one of the 10 most threatened rivers in the US.

"For years the Denver Water Board has siphoned 65 per cent of the Fraser River's water and piped it across the mountains to fuel runaway development," said the report by AmericanRivers.Org, a Washington-based environmental campaign group. "Now it plans to take most of the rest."

The 10 rivers highlighted by the group are spread across the US. While several are located in states known for their industry, such as Ohio, others are in the west and in the Rockies. The Fraser River forms in the snowfields of the nation's continental divide and flows 30 miles to the north and west before it joins the Colorado River, itself little more than a mountain stream at that stage.

The threat to the river is from over-extraction. In the years since President Eisenhower stayed in a lodge at the ranch overlooking the small town of Fraser, the Denver Water Board has been taking 65 per cent of the river's flow to meet the demands of burgeoning development in an area on the east of the mountains known as the Front Range. Now the board, the largest utility in the state, is to seek permission to extract up to 85 per cent of the river's flow.

more...
Its really sad that a British paper reports this!!!:(

[Gloria]

1. You should see the Rio Grande down here in Las Cruces....

sometimes it isn't even there at all. Literally. The rest of the time, it's a trickle.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. true...nothing left to it there

[PartyPooper]

2. Nobody in the world (especially in America) should be surpised.

[alittlelark]

3. Even the SJ Merc does not deal w/ this!!!

So long as only a few powerless ppl are affected.... who notices or gives a sh*t????

[Voltaire99]

5. More reason to hold the party's feet to the fire on environmentalism.

Bush-lite is not sufficient to cope with our deteriorating environment.

[Laughing Mirror]

6. The Anacostia, a brown sludge dump, Washington DC's "other" river

has been called the most polluted river in America. It didn't make this top endangered list, I see. It is no longer endangered. It is dead.

[Robert Oak]

7. ocean pollution

I guess because it's an "out of sight out of mind" issue seemingly
the ocean pollution gets hardly any press...

but I live on the coast and you can tell it's getting worse and worse.

You can't eat the shell fish, a "raw sewage" smell periodically
hits, the beaches are closed due to "increases in bacteria levels"
...

I think about how huge the Pacific is and how remote where I am
is...and it's frightening considering how huge the Pacific is
and international "law" (or lack thereof).

[leftchick]

8. Great way to start my day....

:cry: This is just so depressing the world my little boys are growing up in. We just drove by the Susquehanna River last month. We always cross it on our trek north to visit home. The boys are mesmerized by it. God help us all....


~snip~

Over-extraction is just one of the problems affecting America's waterways. Yesterday's report highlighted a number of threats including pollution from development and factory farming, as well as the building of dams and reservoirs. One of the biggest problems was the release of untreated sewage. Last year more than 860bn gallons of untreated sewage was poured into US rivers, making millions of people ill and causing widespread environmental damage. At the same time the Bush administration is planning to lower clean water standards.

"All across America, rivers link one town's toilets to the next town's faucets," said Rebecca Wodder, president of AmericanRivers.Org. "And when it rains, sewage pours into those rivers, billions of gallons every year.

"Kids in America should be able to enjoy their neighbourhood creeks and rivers without playmates like salmonella, hepatitis and dysentery." The most threatened river identified was the Susquehanna, which starts in upstate New York, makes its way through Pennsylvania and then enters the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the US and another severely polluted body of water.

The source of the river is close to Cooperstown, and from there it flows 444 miles before broadening into a vast tidal estuary at Havre de Grace in Maryland. It drains an area of 27,510 square miles ­ more than any other river on the Atlantic coast.

[0007]

9. It's all about big corporations and highly paid CEO's supporting

administrations that look the other way while holding their hand out.

Greed is poisoning itself. Through the water air and food.


[slor]

10. Has cheney bathed recently? n/t

[saigon68]

11. NO HE WAS "HOSED DOWN" ON FEB 2ND

In preparation for his appearance on Ground Hogs Day.

[DeepModem Mom]

12. Thanks for posting this, lovuian. nt

[struggle4progress]

13. "Here: Drink this!" -- The Ownership Society. eom

[cap]

14. we dont want no stinkin gubmint tellin' us what to do with our water!

/sarcasm