All western waterways are endangered

American Rivers released its annual list of most endangered rivers in the United States naming five at-risk western waterways but isn’t every watershed in the West threatened, if not endangered? Industry and agriculture threaten rivers in the East while grazing and mining are killing waterways in the West. 

Preservationists say hundreds of horses are altering the Lower Salt River in Arizona and are suing the US Forest Service. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is taking water from the most-endangered Colorado River to ship oversees. The Rio Gallinas in New Mexico that accounts for 90% of the clean water for 13,000 residents is America's 9th most endangered waterway.

Invasive species plague nearly every waterway but Earth haters are suing the Bureau of Land Management because conservation has been elevated as an antidote to livestock grazing and in part because of a shuttered pulp mill in Montana the Clark Fork River has been named fifth most endangered. A Montana Republican wants to end appropriations for the Land Conservation and Wildlife Fund despite a portion of the Gallatin River being named as impaired from cattle manure and septic system leakage.

The Snake River through Idaho, Oregon and Washington that was dammed to deny Indigenous salmon fishing is now the 4th most endangered as drought seizes the region. The US Army Corps of Engineers counts almost 90,000 dams in its database. The Eel River in California is also at risk to dams belonging to the Pacific Gas and Electric’s Potter Valley Hydroelectric Project but nitrates in water supplies threaten rivers and millions of people, too.

Reno, Denver, Salt Lake City and Boise were among the 25 cities most impacted by short-term particulate pollution. “The other thing we have going on in the western U.S. is we have a lot of oil and gas around and they can emit plenty of VOCs in that process,” University of Utah atmospheric scientist Jessica Haskins told the Mountain West News Bureau. [Report: Western cities continue to dominate rankings of most polluted by ozone, particulates]

American Rivers named the Gila the most endangered in 2019 because of livestock pollution but today the waterway is nearing protection under the M.H. Dutch Salmon Greater Gila Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. In 2020 Rapid Creek in occupied South Dakota was named the 7th most endangered waterway and the federal government has taken steps to protect at least some of it. 

Read it all at American Rivers.

Climate change is exacerbating drought across the West. By funding water conservation and efficiency projects as part of @POTUS’s Investing in America agenda, we're helping communities boost their climate resilience. https://t.co/5SVtBCR0A1

— Secretary Deb Haaland (@SecDebHaaland) April 21, 2023