This guest blog is a part of the America’s Most Endangered Rivers® series highlighting the St. Louis River in Minnesota. Our guest blogger is Kristin Larsen, the Executive Director of Friends of the Cloquet Valley State Forest. Kristin has lived in northern Minnesota all her life.

Minnesota’s Governor Mark Dayton has stated that the decision on whether or not to allow the Polymet sulfide-ore copper mine on the St Louis River will be the most momentous of his term as governor.

Today, I am asking that you join me in reaching out to him to reject this mine that threatens the St. Louis River. Governor Dayton is fluent in both the language of the heart and the balance sheet. He must hear from us about the value of the St. Louis River and its watershed and understand that stopping Polymet and other sulfide mining in Minnesota’s watery north is of critical importance to all creatures on this earth and in particular those in Minnesota’s northeast.

The value of the St. Louis River watershed seems incalculable to me— an immense and powerful river, tea-stained with natural tannins, lush wetlands, silvery fish, buzzing bees, and lands where ancient trees lay cool in the earth. The river flows from a shallow wild rice lake near our home, past abandoned and struggling modern mining towns, through a tribal community with roots in the region thousands of years old. The St. Louis River pours into a rare freshwater estuary, then into Great Lake Superior; all along the way it gathers water from an area of about 2.4 million acres in northern Minnesota. Its benefits to all living things seem countless.

From the headwaters to the estuary, we can see historical and modern evidence of strong desire to protect our valuable river. A century ago, the United States purchased the forested lands in the headwaters region of the St. Louis River to protect the watershed. The deed to the land, purchased under the Weeks Act, prohibits open-pit mining and demonstrates the value of the headwaters of this river. In recent decades, $750,000,000 has been spent to clean up industrial pollution created in the estuary over the last century. Yet right now, the St. Louis River headwaters are threatened by sulfide-ore copper mining that will pollute this special place which we have sought to protect and heal.

Development of the proposed PolyMet mine is contingent upon eliminating the protections of the Weeks Act. As a result, a “land swap” or exchange has been devised that circumvents laws protecting the headwaters of the St. Louis River from the enormous proposed strip mine. The exchange will sacrifice nearly 1000 acres of wetland directly, with indirect impacts extending much farther. It is as if the value of the headwaters, along with the effort and money spent to restore the health of the river, has been forgotten in the rush to extract minerals from the earth in this watery place, for the benefit of a few.

A recent study by Earth Economics details the economic benefits of ecosystem goods and services provided by the St. Louis River watershed.

In the study, only those factors with rigorous scientific valuation were included in the tally; those lacking careful study were omitted. Therefore, the present valuation must be considered a very conservative estimate of the economic value of the benefits provided by the St. Louis River and its watershed.

In total, the river’s ecosystem goods and services are valued at $5 to $14 billion annually.

One of many factors considered in this evaluation, carbon sequestration, is of enormous concern to human kind, and much of the St. Louis headwaters area is a large and complex peatland. The study values the carbon sequestration capacity of this area between $57 billion and $95 billion over the course of the next seven generations. Recreation and tourism alone generate $12,843 per acre per year in this watershed.

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According to a recent directive from the White House Office of Management and Budget, the hundreds of values that have been identified in Earth Economics’ report must be included in any analysis of benefit and cost related to the proposed PolyMet project.

Over time, I have realized that “incalculable” is simply not a helpful term to illustrate the value of this watershed when speaking to decision-makers, regardless of whether you are talking to County Board members, state officials, or when addressing U.S. government agencies where financial statements, taxes, royalties and election results are the language spoken. We have the right to expect our government to consider the costs of their decisions, not just the benefits that are touted by corporations.

When we each write to Governor Dayton asking him to protect the St. Louis River and we remind him of the river’s value and the costs of harm to our water supply (including cleanup, which often falls to taxpayers), we may help him understand and give him the courage to SAY NO TO POLYMET.

[su_quote cite=”T.S. Eliot”]The river itself has no beginning or end. In its beginning, it is not yet the river; in its end, it is no longer the river. What we call the headwaters is only a selection from among the innumerable sources which flow together to compose it. At what point in its course does the Mississippi become what the Mississippi means?[/su_quote]

There is no better way to describe the formation of rivers and the connectivity of water sources that create them.

When does a body of water become a water of the United States and in being so is protected by the Clean Water Act?

It has fallen to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers to figure out at what point we protect the Mississippi River and all other rivers, streams, and creeks. The EPA and the Corps have turned to science to help them determine that point and to clarify that point for everyone.

The Clean Water Rule is based on sound science. The Rule is based on the accompanying scientific report: Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters: A Review and Synthesis of the Scientific Evidence, a survey and synthesis of more than 1,200 peer reviewed scientific studies. The Connectivity Report itself was formally peer reviewed by a Science Advisory Board.

The science is conclusive: all streams and wetlands exert a strong influence on the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of downstream waters and are interconnected with navigable waters hydrologically and ecologically. Due to this scientifically proven connection to larger bodies of water, small streams and wetlands are protected under the Clean Water Rule.

Underlying the vast web of connected waters across the United States is the simple fact that what is upstream will travel downstream. This is one of the key reasons why the Clean Water Act is so important. The Clean Water Act sets a base standard with which all fifty states must comply, and thirty-six states restrict the authority of state agencies or municipalities to regulate waters that are not already protected by the Clean Water Act. Thus, if the Clean Water Act is weakened, there is a good chance that downstream states will be more vulnerable to opportunistic polluters upstream.

The Clean Water Rule does not protect anything that was not historically covered by the Clean Water Act. But it does protect the streams, wetlands, and floodplains that are vital to the existence of the Mississippi River and all the rivers, streams, creeks, and bays throughout the United States.

October 18, 2015 marked the 43rd anniversary of the Clean Water Act. This bedrock environmental law has been protecting our waters since 1972. A few years before, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio had caught fire – for the 13th time! – at last moving Congress to act decisively to clean up the nation’s rivers and streams. The Clean Water Act has brought us a long way since then, but its full implementation and enforcement are still needed as there are currently 43,180 impaired waters in the United States that need rehabilitation.

Unfortunately, the Clean Water Act is constantly under attack by corporate interests, and their allies in Congress, seeking to weaken the law’s protection of rivers, streams, and wetlands. The latest attack comes in the form of H.R. 8, the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act.

H.R. 8 contains provisions in its hydropower section that would undermine the Clean Water Act. It would allow large utilities to ignore state and tribal requirements under the Clean Water Act that dams meet water quality standards. This dirty water language would benefit a small number of huge corporations that are afraid that their dams, built many decades ago, might now have to meet the Clean Water Act’s modern standards.

For example, H.R. 8 would allow Exelon Corporation to avoid meeting its responsibility to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, which is why this provision is opposed by Maryland’s Republican Administration. It also could allow Pacific Gas and Electric to avoid doing its part to meet water quality requirements on rivers that have been impaired by California’s historic drought, which is why the State of California strongly opposes the bill. If this provision is enacted, the burden for protecting these and other important bodies of water will fall disproportionately on other users of the river, but especially agricultural producers and municipalities.

Hydropower licenses are issued for up to 50 years

Hydropower facilities that are coming up for relicensing now were first constructed before the Clean Water Act and virtually all modern environmental laws were in place. It is during relicensing proceedings that the public gets the opportunity to ensure that dam owners make the necessary changes to comply with the Clean Water Act and other modern laws. The opportunity to mitigate for the damage to the environment, while still providing reliable electricity, only arises once in a generation or two.

This bill is an unprecedented assault on our nation’s rivers and the people and wildlife that depend upon them. Its passage would end the balance in hydropower licensing, instead tipping the scales in favor of huge utilities and against taxpayers.

How you can help

If you care about the Clean Water Act, as well as irrigation, Native American treaty rights, wildlife, recreational fishing, commercial fishing, whitewater boating, water quality, municipal water supply, fire safety, flood control, or any other purpose other than generating power, then you should ask Congress to oppose it.

Unicorn spotting on the Waccamaw River! What better way to spend Halloween that to enjoy the gorgeous fall weather on the Waccamaw River Blue Trail? A group of locals got together to channel their imaginations and paddle through the gorgeous black water, enjoying the changing leaves and local wildlife.

This paddle was a treat for all as the Waccamaw River has only recently returned to somewhat normal levels after the massive flooding events this month.

Fall is one of the best times to paddle with clear reflections cast on the dark water. It is a budding photographers dream as there are many opportunities for wildlife viewing who are enjoying the changing temperatures, and less crowded creeks and rivers for paddlrs to enjoy. With Halloween falling on a Saturday this year accompanied by a full moon, I have no doubt we will see more Waccamaw Witches and Pirate paddlers our enjoying our community treasure.

Originally published on Nooga.com.

The Cherohala Skyway is a scenic drive that winds 40-plus miles through the Cherokee National Forest and Nantahala National Forest from Tellico Plains, Tennessee, to Robbinsville, North Carolina. This popular drive offers expansive views of mountain ranges piled on top of mountain ranges that bathe in the sun’s golden rays and burst with fall color.

Imagine standing at scenic overlooks like Turkey Creek or Brushy Ridge and the landscape turning digital. Pins would pop up everywhere to mark what lies below the canopy, the little nooks and crannies of wonder and diversity that make this Appalachian landscape unique: waterfalls, swimming holes, trails, camping sites, waterways, and habitat lush with plants and animals found only in this environment.

Surely one pin would designate Citico Creek, a pristine waterway that originates high in the mountains of the Citico Wilderness and eventually empties into Tellico Lake. Located deep within a gorge, the creek is accessed from FS Road 345, which leads to Indian Boundary Lake and Campground, about 15 miles from Tellico Plains.

Citico Creek is designated an exceptional Tennessee stream by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation because of the rich diversity of fish that live within its waters. Fifty-two native fish live in Citico Creek, including the federally endangered Citico darter (a small fish) and Smoky madtom, and federally threatened yellowfin madtom (madtoms are small catfish).

Follow the curvy mountain road that leads to Citico Creek and you will arrive at Doublecamp Campground, a backcountry camping area along its riverbanks. There, 50 years ago, a low dam was constructed in a misguided effort to prevent warm water fish (including green sunfish, bream and creek chubs) in Indian Boundary Lake from migrating into the trout waters of Citico Creek. Today, biologists understand that this was an error—warm water fish cannot survive in the cold water of Citico Creek and therefore pose no threat.

Water tumbles over the manmade structure, and each fall, some fish drama takes place there: Brown trout can be seen leaping out of the water, throwing their bodies against the obstruction in an effort to travel upstream to spawn. No doubt this has been going on since the dam was built nearly 50 years ago.

This week, a track hoe and hydraulic hoe ram changed everything in this little nook and cranny of forest. Thanks to a partnership between American Rivers, Region 8 of the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Cherokee National Forest, the dam was removed.

“[Citico Creek dam] is the first dam removal to take place as part of a new partnership between American Rivers and the southern region of the U.S. Forest Service,” said Gerrit Jöbsis, senior director of conservation programs with American Rivers, a national river conservation organization.

“Most of our work focuses on dams that are not being used and are causing harm, risking public health and impacting aquatic species,” Jöbsis said.

For half a century, Citico Creek dam prevented the natural movement of fish in the waterway, segregating species into upstream and downstream populations, and decreasing genetic diversity and resiliency. It also interrupted the natural transport of sediment and nutrients required in healthy streams.

“The dam removal along Citico Creek will benefit 13 species specifically,” said Allison Reddington, USDA Forest Service hydrologist with the Cherokee National Forest.

The Citico Creek dam removal began Tuesday. Agency staff watched as a hydraulic hoe ram chipped away at concrete and rebar. Finally, after a half-century, Citico Creek is a river restored.

Today’s guest blog is by Rachel Garwin, policy director for Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness.

When I dipped my paddle into the South Kawishiwi River on a drizzly day in June 2013, I didn’t know that I was helping launch a movement. American Rivers had listed the South Kawishiwi River and the connected Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on the list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers^® earlier that year, and we unfurled the Most Endangered River banner in front of a flotilla of canoes in order to launch a public action and education center located in Ely, Minnesota, one of the Wilderness’s gateway towns. Nearly 60 people braved the rain and cold to paddle a couple of miles down the river as a testament to value of the river and the wilderness that is both its source and sink.

The Boundary Waters is still threatened by proposed sulfide-ore copper mines, just like it was in 2013 when American Rivers first raised national awareness of the issue, but we’ve come a long way in defending it. The Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters grew out of the same local efforts behind Sustainable Ely, the action center that was launched on June 1, 2013. Since then, the Campaign has continued connecting with Minnesotans and people across the country to educate them about the risks posed by sulfide-ore copper mining and the extreme vulnerability of the Boundary Waters.

Minnesota has never before allowed this type of mining, which is listed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxic Release Inventory as the nation’s most toxic industry. Contamination from the proposed mine sites could indefinitely harm fish and their prey, and the surface infrastructure would unacceptably impact the wilderness character of the nearby Boundary Waters.

The Campaign’s efforts to mobilize a national movement to protect the Boundary Waters have included three “adventure advocacy” expeditions planned and executed by outfitters and guides whose lives and livelihoods depend on the pristine and unspoiled qualities of the Boundary Waters.

From August to December 2014, Dave and Amy Freeman paddled and sailed more than 2,000 miles from Ely, MN, to Washington, DC, to call attention to the threats posed to the Boundary Waters from sulfide-ore copper mining and collected petition signatures on their canoe. They were greeted in DC by more than 40 Minnesotans who then met with members of Congress, their staffs, and land management agency officials to explain why the clean water and healthy forests of the Boundary Waters are too important to risk to sulfide-ore copper mining.

Then from April to May 2015, three instructors at the Voyageur Outward Bound School pedaled 850 miles from Winona, MN, to Ely, MN— visiting college campuses along the way and engaging with Minnesotans across the state about the mining threat. They collected more than 6,000 petition signatures during the journey.

Most recently, Dave and Amy Freeman launched a year-long expedition into the Boundary Waters to bear witness to the place that would be so impacted by sulfide-ore copper mining, and in Amy’s words, to “speak loudly for a quiet place.”

Tens of thousands of people have taken action as a result of these expeditions and the Campaign’s work including: generating media coverage; working in coalition with business, youth, faith, veteran and sportsmen allies; hosting grassroots house parties; speaking at clubs and service organizations; and otherwise connecting with neighbors and friends about the threats faced by the Boundary Waters. In March 2015, the Campaign and its partners (including American Rivers) delivered more than 60,000 petitions to members of Congress and federal agencies asking for permanent protection for the Boundary Waters. The petitions and public outcry convinced Representative Betty McCollum to introduce legislation in the House of Representatives that would permanently protect the Boundary Waters watershed from sulfide-ore copper mining, while maintaining all other types of uses currently allowed by the Superior National Forest. As the ranking Democratic member of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, Representative McCollum’s willingness to defend the Boundary Waters proves the importance of these wilderness waters for the whole country.

By building this local and national movement, we are showing federal agencies and Minnesota’s Congressional delegation that the Boundary Waters is a precious national treasure. As such, the agencies must take a good, hard look now at whether sulfide-ore copper mining is an appropriate activity next to the nation’s most popular wilderness area. Under existing federal law, that hard look must include a full environmental review of one company’s application to renew its federal mineral leases, the environmental impacts of which have never been studied. Additionally, it is within the Bureau of Land Management’s and U.S. Forest Service’s missions as land managers to weigh the environmental impact of turning the Superior National Forest near the Boundary Waters into an industrial mining zone before proceeding in a piecemeal fashion.

We are grateful for the support of American Rivers in giving this Campaign its national start, and we continue to educate and mobilize people to take action to protect these beloved waters from the dire threat of sulfide-ore copper mining.

We take heart from the fact that so many people have joined the cause, but we know that more will be needed to protect the Boundary Waters. Until the federal land management agencies and our elected officials take concrete action to permanently protect the Boundary Waters watershed, we cannot and will not rest. Please join us by signing the petition to federal decision-makers asking them to protect this special place!

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Rachel Garwin, policy director for Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, which leads the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters. At the time of the South Kawishiwi River’s inclusion as one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2013, Rachel worked as a wilderness instructor and lived on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Profit and political influence are back for one more bite at the apple – and in this case that apple is the Gila River in Southwestern New Mexico.

For the fourth time, the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission and regional water developers (known specifically as the New Mexico CAP Authority) are angling for approval to dam New Mexico’s last free-flowing river, and “provide” water to communities and counties who have publicly stated that they neither want nor need the water from the river.

Included in the 2014 America’s Most Endangered Rivers report, the battle for saving the Gila is still on, even if the opposition from the citizens of New Mexico to damming this river has been consistent, vocal, and strongly one-sided. Choking this historic river for an unnecessary, expensive, and unwanted project – one that may never realize a drop of “new” water – would be nothing short of tragic.

I toured the area around the proposed dam site in June of 2014. The area is simply amazing, with stunning blue skies, dappled hillsides, and rocky canyons. With songbirds singing in the distance and trout darting among the shallows, strolling along the banks under towering cottonwoods made me wonder how a desert oasis like this could possibly survive with less than the trickle of natural water that already barely makes it down from the Aldo Leopold Wilderness above.

Would it be worth the death-knell that this project would certainly deliver to this river? This treasured micro-environment and delicate habitat wouldn’t have a chance, especially in the face of a hotter, drying climate in the Southwest. All for a project that many experts say may never deliver a drop of water to the potential “customers.”

Once again, we need to ask Secretary Jewell to intervene on behalf of wildlife, history, and sound economics, to halt another unwise and unnecessary project.

Once again, we need to think about how we can be better stewards and use the resources we have more wisely and efficiently. Once again, we have to reflect upon ourselves and question whether or not we want to hold ourselves responsible for crushing a place that did not need to go.

If you haven’t spoken out, please do. Let’s stop this project once and for all – if we don’t, the Gila may not get another chance.

Guest post by Tennessee Clean Water Network

We are pleased to announce a victory for the America’s Most Endangered Rivers® listing of the Holston River!

The Tennessee Clean Water Network (TCWN), the U.S. Department of Defense, and BAE Systems Ordnance Systems, Inc. have signed a consent decree that will greatly reduce the level of RDX (a highly toxic, explosive chemical) pollution in the Holston River by 2020. The proposed settlement was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee on September 28, 2015.

RDX is a toxic explosive compound that was developed during World War II and is only produced at the Army’s Holston Army Ammunition Plant (HSAAP) on the banks of the Holston River in Kingsport, Tennessee. BAE Systems operates the HSAAP under a contract with the Army.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) RDX lifetime health advisory limit is 2 µg/L for drinking water. Based on this advisory, the state imposed a strict permit limit for RDX in 2007, but granted the facility five years to comply. The RDX discharge from the HSAAP to the Holston River has routinely exceeded this permit level since the May 2012 compliance deadline.

Prior to the filing of this lawsuit, RDX, a possible human carcinogen, was found in finished drinking water samples taken by the First Utility District of Hawkins County and the samples indicated RDX levels at more than double the EPA’s limit. RDX has been found in the Holston River as far south as Knoxville, more than 100 miles from the HSAAP. The most recent instream samples from the Holston River, taken in April and August 2015, were well below the EPA limit.

As a result of this history of pollution, the Holston River was named as one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers^® of 2015 by American Rivers because the drinking water supply for thousands of East Tennesseans is at risk.

If approved by the Court, this consent decree would prescribe a date certain of July 2020 for the facility to comply with the RDX permit. The families and communities along the Holston have a right to clean, safe drinking water. TCWN is proud to have played a role in prompting this action to bring RDX down to safe levels in the river by 2020.

TCWN will continue to monitor the RDX levels in the discharge and in the Holston River to ensure these levels continue their downward trend. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, the Army and BAE Systems had previously entered a voluntary agreement with 14 different projects to reduce the levels of RDX. This settlement does not disturb that agreement, but adds a judicially-enforceable deadline. This is great news for the people of East Tennessee who depend on the Holston as their source of drinking water and for recreational users of the Holston River, including Cherokee Lake.

The Holston River flows 274 miles from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the confluence with the French Broad River and becomes the Tennessee River. The Holston River is home to 47 species of fish including smallmouth bass, brown trout, rainbow trout, redline darter, and bigeye chub. The river has played a key role in our nation’s history – it was the site of a 1791 treaty between the United States and Cherokee Indian Nation, and also saw many battles throughout the Civil War.

Please join us in celebrating this wonderful news!

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Tennessee Clean Water Network is a non-profit organization that empowers Tennesseans to exercise their right to clean water and healthy communities by fostering civic engagement, building partnerships and advancing and, when necessary, enforcing water policy for a sustainable future.

The Clean Water Rule which was promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers is not being implemented.

The Clean Water Rule protects our precious streams, rivers, and wetlands across the United States that we rely on for drinking water, recreation, and our economy. Unfortunately, on October 9, 2015 the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio issued a temporary stay of the Clean Water Rule while litigation there is ongoing.

What Happened in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals?

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals is tasked with issuing a decision on the Clean Water Rule’s validity. The petitioners are the states of Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, West Virginia, Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin.

These eighteen states are seeking to have the Clean Water Rule invalidated by the court. As part of their case they petitioned the court to stay the Clean Water Rule pending the completion of the court’s review of their case. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Defense (which houses the Army Corps of Engineers) opposed the stay as did several conservation groups as well as the pro- Clean Water Rule states of New York, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia. Unfortunately, the Sixth Circuit Court granted the petitioners’ stay.

There are two parts to the decision the Sixth Circuit must make. First, the Court must decide if they have subject matter jurisdiction over the case (meaning if they even have the authority to hear the case before them). Second, the Court must decide on the validity of the Clean Water Rule based on its merits. The decision as to whether the court has the authority to hear the case on the validity of the Clean Water Rule will be decided shortly. If the Court decides they do not have the authority to hear the rule than the stay will be lifted. If the Court decides that they do have the authority to hear the petitioners’ case then the stay will most likely be in place until the validity of the Clean Water Rule is decided, which could be months or more likely years.

What Does a Stay Mean for the Clean Water Rule?

This means that the Clean Water Rule will not be implemented across the United States until the Sixth Circuit determines that the Clean Water Rule is valid or they decide they do not have jurisdiction to hear the petitioners’ case and the stay is lifted. Since the Clean Water Rule is not allowed to be implemented the old status quo of pre-Clean Water Rule guidelines following the Supreme Court’s decision in Rapanos v. United States will apply nation-wide. This means that the confusion as to which waters are and are not covered by the Clean Water Act will once again reign while the Court deliberates. Unfortunately, this puts the drinking water sources for 1 in 3 Americans back at risk.

While American Rivers is disappointed with this new roadblock to the implementation of the Clean Water Rule, we are confident in a positive final court decision resulting in the Clean Water Rule being implemented in all fifty states. The stay is just a ripple along the way to protecting clean water for everyone

Within the area of the Great Divide, the St. Louis River is the primary river of northeast Minnesota that flows into Lake Superior. Adjacent waters flow north into the Rainy River or south into the Mississippi.

As the St. Louis picks up volume due to the emptying of its many tributaries, the river flows through the Tribal Nation of Fond du Lac and forms a fresh water estuary as the river meets the Lake. The tributaries that feed into the St. Louis form a water filtration network that nourishes the forests and wetlands of Superior National Forest.

In the not-so-distant past of the early 1900’s, the Federal Weeks Act of 1911 provided for the addition of land to Superior National Forest for the purpose of protecting the headwaters of navigable streams. After a period of intense logging that cut down a hundred years of white pine in only thirty years’ time, national figures saw the need to manage lands in a way that valued the primary resources of woods and water.

For the remainder of the century, Superior National Forest gradually regenerated, although the white pine forests never returned. The parts of the forest surrounding what is now the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness came to serve as a buffer zone, protecting the quality and character of the area.

Then, in an unfortunate turn of events, something changed in the latter part of the 1900’s. A new mining process that crushed taconite rock into iron pellets made inroads into Superior National Forest and into the St. Louis River watershed. Now, the taconite industry is leaving behind a legacy of mercury and sulfates, impacting the fish, wild rice, and quality of the waters of the St. Louis River, and ultimately Lake Superior itself.

While state agencies scramble to find ways to clean up the water, the very same agencies are on the brink of permitting a new even more toxic kind of mining— for copper/nickel minerals in sulfide ore, which are highly dispersed throughout the bedrock of the area between Lake Superior, along the North Shore, and across to the Boundary Waters. Due to the low quality of these ores, the volume of waste rock will be astronomical.

A company known as PolyMet is the first in line for permitting, and would be mining 99 percent waste rock at their project site. Meanwhile, there is no known sulfide ore mine that has been able to prevent water contamination from acid mine drainage and toxic heavy metals, which lasts for centuries.

Recent government leaders have relinquished the lessons learned by their predecessors. They are falling for mining company propaganda that claims their mines will not impact the environment in any negative way— a foolhardy statement that flies in the face of both science and on-the-ground reality. No research has even proven the claims that all such metals are needed in order to keep afloat our reliance on current technologies.

So while the city of Duluth is seeking approximately $70 million to clean up a U.S. Steel superfund site along the St. Louis River, our state agencies are promoting another onslaught of pollution within the upper reaches of the river.

The iconic beauty and quality of the St. Louis River watershed is at risk. Our agencies and leaders are ignoring the fact that clean water is a valuable natural resource. We have lost respect for the quality and character of Lake Superior itself; we have forsaken the generations who will follow us. Who will rise up and step forward from within the ranks of bureaucracy in time to save us from ourselves?

The damage that had been undone but tried to be redone won’t be done again. I apologize for the confusion but I was equally confused when a power company proposed to build a dam on a pristine section of the Bear River in Idaho just a few miles downstream of where a dam had been previously removed. Thanks to the smart staff at a federal agency that regulates hydropower in our nation, the dam will likely not be built.

The staff at Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) last week in which they urge the Commission not to issue a license for a proposed 109-foot-tall hydroelectric dam proposed on a section of the Bear River in southeast Idaho found suitable for Wild and Scenic river protections.

In their findings, the staff determine that even the mitigation measures proposed by the power company “would not adequately offset the adverse effects of constructing and operating a new major hydroelectric project on a currently scenic river reach in an undeveloped canyon with remarkable recreational, geological, and wildlife values and public access.”

The removal of Cove Dam on the Bear River in 2006 happened as part of a hydroelectric settlement with another power company and reconnected 29 miles of the river, restored fish-spawning tributaries and improved fish habitat and water quality. If allowed to be built, among other things, the new dam would’ve caused a substantial reduction in the size of cutthroat fishery, resulted in a loss of 4.5 miles of habitat for Bonneville cutthroat as well as loss of 249 acres of conservation land which was a result of a previous licensing settlement. However, the determination by FERC staff in addition with a denial of water right by the Idaho Department of Water Resources in 2012 has effectively killed the project.

For now, the fish can rejoice.

I was glad to be heading back to Columbia after two days of soggy weather at American Rivers’ Board meeting in Beaufort, South Carolina. I couldn’t stay an extra day to fish the Broad River for redfish with my friend, who also happened to be in the area that weekend for a wedding. I’d be home before dark and escape the worst of what was left of Hurricane Joaquin and the coastal flooding it had caused. Except for a few downpours mixed in with steady rain, the drive back home was uneventful. I was glad to be home, dry and with my family.

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I lost count of how many times the National Weather Service flash flood alert on my iPhone went off that night. I do know that each time I was awakened it seemed to be raining even harder, but I wasn’t overly concerned. We were almost a mile from Gills Creek and on high ground, not in an area prone to flooding.

With Sunday morning’s daylight I saw water running across our lightly sloped back yard and ponding at the back of our house. I soon learned that it had overtopped our air vents and spilled into the crawl space flooding it with more than a foot of water and partially submerging our furnace. Not long afterward, our power flickered and went out. Our city-supplied water lost pressure, turned a muddy brown, then stopped altogether. No longer could I think that we were safe from what was a historic deluge. Sixteen inches of rain in 18 hours doesn’t pick favorites.

Or maybe it does. Just blocks away neighbors living closer to Gills Creek were experiencing a major flood that topped the eaves of houses supposedly on high ground.

Even with that much rain, how could Gills Creek carry so much water? It was later that afternoon when I heard of the dam breaks. Cary Lake Dam had failed, then Pine Tree Lake Dam, then Semmes Lake Dam. The destruction continued into Monday with the dam at Upper Rockyford Lake giving way and sweeping along with it the Lower Rockyford Lake Dam. A cascade of dam failures, like dominos in a child’s game, had turned a small tributary stream of the Congaree River into a raging torrent that was unfazed by bridges, buildings and roadways. It indiscriminately carried away those who dared to drive through flooded crossings – many to be rescued by first responders, some not.

We don’t know what the future holds for rivers in the Columbia area. In addition to the Gills Creek dams, dams failed in Lexington County. A total of nine dams were lost and many more are teetering. The historic Columbia Canal, which for generations had supplied Columbia’s drinking water, had a gaping, 60-foot hole blown through its banks, jeopardizing the water supply of almost 200,000 Columbia area customers.

We do know that there is a new normal in Columbia and across South Carolina. Climate change predictions of more frequent and more extreme storms are no longer a theoretical debate for academics. We are living it. No politician, regardless of their persuasion, can ignore what has unfolded in Columbia, right?

This is home to me and my family. We live here. Our hearts go out to our friends and neighbors who lost loved ones to the flooding. When the flood waters recede and the time is right to take stock, my American Rivers colleagues and I will join with Columbia and the state of South Carolina to consider what this new normal means for the management of our local rivers and streams. We look forward to helping communities and the state forge a path forward that ensures healthy rivers and community safety.