Washington - An organization that monitors America's rivers says in its annual report that factory hog and chicken farms "are a growing national blight on our nation's rivers."
While praising "significant progress" that has been made to clean up the nation's rivers, American Rivers says "we are faced with a threat so pervasive it could send us back to the days when rivers...were nothing more than cesspools."
Of its 20 most endangered rivers in its annual report, American Rivers sites mining and runoff from poultry, livestock and agricultural firms 11 times as the reasons for listing the rivers.
However, American Rivers says this year's most endangered river, Washington state's Hanford Reach of the Columbia River, "is facing imminent threats from proposed development of the lands around the river."
The top 10 endangered rivers include:
* The Missouri River in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. American Rivers says the Missouri is "little more than a stabilized barge canal that doubles as a storm sewer" because of dams and channelization.
* The Pocomoke River in Eastern Shore, Maryland. American Rivers says the river is threatened by factory poultry farms that "stimulates the growth of Pfisteria...that has been killing fish and making swimmers and boaters ill."
* The Kern River near Los Angeles, threatened by six small hydropower dams, which, American Rivers says, blocks the river's flow, destroying critical aquatic habitat.
* The Blackfoot River near Missoula, Mont., made famous by "A River Runs Through It" and its world- renowned trout fishery, threatened by a gold mine.
* The Colorado River Delta in Mexico, Baja California, Sonora, threatened with "overuse."
* The Chattahoochee River in Georgia, Alabama and Florida, threatened by development, polluted runoff, sewage overflows.
* The Lower Snake River in Washington state, threatened by dams, which American Rivers says is destroying wild salmon and steelhead runs in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
* The Apple River in Wisconsin and Illinois, threatened by factory hog farms.
* The Pinto Creek in Arizona threatened by a copper mine.
The top 20 list also includes the Wolf River in Wisconsin; the Potomac River in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia; the Rogue River/Illinois River System in Oregon; the Taku River in British Columbia and Alaska; the Crooked Creek in Arkansas; the Passaic River in New Jersey; the Mattaponi River in Virginia; the Walla Walla River in Oregon and Washington; the Uinta River in Utah and the Kansas River in Kansas.
Press for Information on Placing Your Ad Here
Meat Industry Insights News Service
P.O. Box 553
Northport, NY 11768
Phone: 631-757-4010
Fax: 631-757-4060
E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com
Web Site: http://www.spcnetwork.com/mii