outside magazine: current affairs

90 Outside

THE/WATER/ISSUE/2010

CURRENT

The removal of two damson Maine’s Penobscot Riverwill open 1,000 miles ofsalmon habitat and rapids.Pictured: the Class IV BigAmbejackmockamus Falls.

INANERAOFMASSIVEOILSPILLSANDINCREASINGENERGYDEMANDS,WHYDOESRIVERCONSER-

VATIONSTILLMATTER?BECAUSEFREE-FLOWINGWATERISFUN.BECAUSEIT’SGOODFORTHE

NATIONALCHUTZPAH.ANDBECAUSE,ASTHESETENCOMEBACKSTORIESILLUSTRATE,SAVING

RIVERSISMOREPROFITABLETHANEXPLOITINGTHEM.

Affairs

ONE HOT DAY last July,agroupofusdrove tothe town of Turah,Montana—two bars, onecamp-supply store—and dropped two raftsinto the loveliest Superfund site in America,the Clark Fork River. My companions werefour scientists and a schoolteacher, and wewere there tosee the remnantsof adirtier era.Wefloateduntilwepassedakidflyingakite

onshore. Soon after, I heard a low growling.The rumble amplified until we rounded abendandcameuponthesourceof thenoise—trucks—at the confluence of the Clark Forkand Blackfoot rivers. Where the Milltowndam had sat for the past century, pluggingup theClark Fork and serving as a catchmentfor tailings from an upstream copper mine,the riverbed was now dry. Dump trucks andbackhoes crawled between blackened treestumps, removing arsenic-laden sludge.What the river ran through here, at the pointwhere it met the Blackfoot—the waterwaythat famously haunted NormanMaclean—was a concrete gutter, a diversion skirting theolddamsite.Our party was the second group to float to

the dam site since the removal. (Montanagovernor Brian Schweitzer had floated

funding the new “restoration economy”—Schweitzer’s favorite buzz phrase—comesfrom the energy companyARCO,which hasowned the mine responsible for the ClarkFork’s degradation since 1977.Tocall this comebackunexpectedwouldbe

through to the cheers of a waiting crowd oneweek earlier.) Still, we had the privilege ofseeing a river in a state of remedial distress. Iturned to one of my rafting partners, MattDaniels, a hydraulic engineer hired by thestate of Montana to rebuild the Clark Fork’snatural channel through theolddamsite,andaskedwhathis planwas.He shrugged.“Thegoal is to rebuildanatural floodplain,”

he said. “We have an idea of where the riverusedtoflow,but it’sgoingtogowhereitwantsto go.”

THESE DAYS, Montana’s fastest-growingindustry is restoration, and ground zero fortheboomistheClarkFork.Thecleanupofthe120-mile upper river will create some 3,500jobsover thenextdecade.Muchof themoney

92 Outside

F L U I D T H I N K I N G

BLOCK INVASIVESOne of the problems with rivers is that they don’t respect borders. The Flathead startsin the Canadian Rockies and flows into Montana, forming the western boundary ofGlacier National Park. Due to rich coal and oil deposits near its Canadian headwaters,the river has been the cause of an international tug of war for two decades. On one side:British Columbia’s government, oil giant BP, and the Cline mining company, all of whichadvocated digging near the Flathead’s source. On the other: the Flathead Coalition, acitizens’ conservation group. Fortunately, the enviros recently scored a TKO. In January,the United Nations World Heritage Committee reported that—surprise!—mining in theCanadian Flathead threatened Glacier. Soon after, on the eve of the VancouverOlympics, British Columbia banned oil and gas mining in the Flathead Valley, sending BPand Cline packing. —KYLE DICKMAN

CASH FLOWMontana’s strategy for jump-starting the local economy?Tap the Superfund. BY ABE STREEP


COLLECT THE RAINCan gardens save rivers? KansasCity’s government thinks so. In 2005,urban officials became concernedabout polluted storm water that raninto the Missouri River. So they in-vested $5 million in a project called10,000 Rain Gardens, which teachescitizens how to water gardens fromroof gutters. The goal: filter stormwater through native plants. The planis promising enough that Seattle,Portland, and Chicago have recentlylaunched similar programs. —K.D.

RYA

NH

EFFE

RN

AN

/AU

RO

RA

.PR

EVIO

US

SP

REA

D:J

OS

EA

ZEL

/AU

RO

RA

Jump in, the water’sfine: The cleanup ofthe Clark Fork Riverwill create some3,500 jobs.

RYA

NH

EFFE

RN

AN

like calling the 2004 Red SoxWorld Seriesvictory a nice little turnaround. For most ofthe 20th century, the state’s economic policywent like this:Ranch, log,andmine—quickly.Those industries created jobs and forged adefiant spirit in many Montanans, but re-cently the zeitgeist has shifted.“Part of it was miners and loggers saying,

Weneed extraction,butwealsoneed tovaluethe environment,” says JimKuipers, a formermining engineer who now advises govern-ment officials cleaning up the Clark Fork.“But one of the biggest things was that theSuperfunddesignationbrought jobs.”TheClarkFork flows 320miles through the

western part of the state and into Lake PendOreille, Idaho. The river’s tributaries includethe Flathead, the Bitterroot, Rock Creek, andthe Blackfoot— geologic stars of Montana’s$225 million-per-year angling industry—so the fact that the Clark Fork is the mostpollutedwaterway in the state is ironic.Theriver is hemmed in by train tracks on oneside and I-90 on the other, hard lines oftransportation that have cut off the flood-plain and shortened the river by 14 milesover the past century. The headwaters? Sil-ver BowCreek, a stream in Butte that’s beencatching runoff contaminatedby the tailingsof amassive coppermine since the 1880s.In 1905, the copper baron William A.

Clark began building the Milltown Dam atthe town of Bonner, and over the next cen-tury the damwas transferred among energycompanies. By 2000, it produced one-tenthof 1 percent of the state’s power while em-ploying precisely two dam operators. Mill-town did, however, function as an effectiveholding tank for Butte’s mine tailings. Theupper river has been designated a Super-fund site—a toxic-waste source the federalgovernment helps clean—since the earlyeighties, when Bonner residents discoveredarsenic in their drinkingwater.

Since obtaining the Superfund designa-

tion,Montana has received some $300mil-lion in federal money and won some $200million in lawsuits from ARCO, which wasbought out by the much-maligned oil giantBP in 2000. Now, after a couple of decadesduring which grassroots organizationspushed for dam removal, that money is put-ting people to work. Timber companies bidforcontracts to rebuild riverbanks; engineerslike Daniels redesign river channels; formerminers dredgeSilverBowCreek.The work won’t dry up anytime soon. The

removal of the damwas crucial, but theClarkFork’s headwaters still need cleaning, andconservationists point out the necessity ofrewatering the river’s smaller, lesser-knowntributaries, which have long been siphonedoff for agriculture.“There’s simplymore business in restora-

tion,” saysKarenKnudsen, executive directorof the local Clark Fork Coalition, a nonprofitthat led the push for dam removal. “Wewantthis to be a global example of how a damagedwatershedcanbe fixed.”

DURING THE SAME TRIP to Montana, I alsofloated the Blackfoot. This was partly out ofprofessional interest and partly because itwas the peak of fishing season. Ponderosas

lined the banks, trout slapped the surface, aflotilla of rafts full of undergradspassed.Today, the Blackfoot is about as pristine a

river as you’ll find in the lower 48, but notso long ago itwas amess, too.TheBlackfootfishery nearly crashed in the seventies andeighties, courtesy of a dam made of gold-mine tailings that blew out near the river’sheadwaters in 1975. Until recently, loggingwas ubiquitous here. (When Robert Red-ford shot the film version of Maclean’s ARiver Runs Through It, in 1991, he headed acouple of hundred miles east, to the Gal-latin. Missoula rumor has it that Redfordchose the Gallatin because the Blackfoot’sbanks were too chopped up.) In the earlynineties, concerned locals started cleaningthe river and buying up nearby land to do-nate to the Forest Service. This year, theNatureConservancywill complete the pur-chase of 170,000 acres in the river valleyfrom a former timber giant.I floated an eight-mile section of the

upper river with M. Sanjayan, lead scientistfor theNatureConservancy, andGrant Kier,executive director of the Five Valleys LandTrust, a partner in the Conservancy deal.We were supposed to be working, but thecutthroat trout distracted us.

Eventually, I asked a question, somethingrelated to the land grab. Happy to relay thecompany line, Sanjayan began to reply, buthis rod bent to the water, then sprang back,whiplike.The linedangledbrokenand limp.“Oooh, oooh, it was as big asmy arm!” he

yelled.“Dude,you’remakingmemiss fish!”So we shut up and fished until we came

to our take-out, a bridge preceded by a smallrapidoccupiedbyacanoe thatappeared tobestuck. The paddlers, who were profoundlydrunk, had attempted to run the rapid, aClass II, backwards. They had failed. Onewavedtous:“Hey,maaaan,canwegeta lift?”Now that, I thought, is what a river’s sup-

posed to look like.

We’re about to find out whether wild fish and clean hydropower can coexist. Maine’slower Penobscot River has been plugged with eight dams since 1910. Now, an unparal-leled partnership—between environmental organizations; state, federal, and tribal gov-ernments; and hydropower interests—is taking down two of the lowermost dams andretrofitting a third with an innovative fish pass that resembles a natural river channel.The project will restore fish access to 1,000 miles of habitat by 2013. And the river willproduce the same amount of power: PPL Corporation, owner of multiple dams on thePenobscot, will increase hydroelectric production at six small existing dams. Optimistsexpect threatened American shad to recover and the Atlantic salmon population toincrease from less than 1,000 to 10,000 within a decade. But the most lasting impact ofthe project might be its value as a viable new model.“It shows that we can remove damsand increase power within the same river basin,”says Stephanie Lindloff, senior directorof river restoration at American Rivers, an environmental nonprofit. —RYAN KROGH


HIT THE HIGH-WATER MARKTHE/WATER/ISSUE/2010

Brook trout inMontana’s Rock Creek

OUTSIDEONLINE.COM Outside 93

ROYAL FLUSHThe new era of dam removalmeans habitat restoration, fishcomebacks, and—bonus!—newwhitewater BY KYLE DICKMAN

“HEMLOCK’S DOWN AND Trout Creek’scoming up!”My friend Sam Drevo, a Portland, Ore-

gon–based kayaker,was on the phone.Whathemeantwas “Let’s go paddling.”The ForestService had recently jackhammered the 26-foot,72-year-oldHemlockDamoutofWash-ington’s Trout Creek, an indirect tributaryof theColumbiaRiver.Hemlockhaddrowneda Class V section of whitewater, and earlyspring storms were expected to raise thewater level.With the dam gone, we had therareopportunity to runnew,potentially clas-sic rapids. I flew toPortland.Hemlock was the first of about 20 dams

scheduled tocomeoutofnorthwestern riversover the next decade. The American era ofriver reclamation—which meant rampantdambuildingto increase thenation’spower—lasted from 1900 until the mid-seventies,when the Army Corps of Engineers erectedfour dams on Washington’s Lower SnakeRiver. Those beasts went a long way towardwiping out what was once the most prolificsalmonrunonearthandsentenvirosclamor-ing for a reversal. Finally, some 30 years later,the time seems tohave arrived:430ofAmer-ica’s86,000damshave fallen since 1999,andsome big ones are on deck. Two behemothsare coming out ofWashington’s Elwha Rivernext summer, along with four on Oregon’sKlamath that are scheduled to fall by 2020.LastAugust,TheNewYorkTimesproclaimedthat the era of damremovalwasuponus.But that’s a little simplistic,because there’s

more than one kind of dam.Most of the 430removed thus far have been, like Hemlock,small structures thatproduced little electric-ity. The forthcoming removal of big damson the Elwha and the Klamath is good forsalmon lovers, but it’s not necessarily a har-binger of snowballing dam destruction: Ittook 25 years of debate before the NationalPark Service committed to demolishing theElwhadams.And some largehydroelectrics,like the four contested dams on the LowerSnake, provide so much power—enough torunSeattle for ayear—that removal is, if not apipe dream, aways off. InMarch, theObamaadministration,eager towean the countryoffoil, pledged to develop clean hydropower byadding turbines to existingdams.“People say dams are a thing of the

past,” says George Robison, dam-safety SA

MD

REV

O

94 Outside

coordinator for Oregon’s Water ResourcesDepartment. “That’s delusional.”So what’s the story? The era of dam re-

moval or the era of clean hydro? Some thinkboth are possible.“The goal is to increase the total amount

of power without building new dams,” saysJeff Opperman, a hydropower expert withthe Nature Conservancy. “Wewant to see amore holistic approach—increase hydro-power from existing dams, then look at re-moval for the little dams that might begiving only twomegawatts.”In fact, according to American Rivers,

there are tens of thousands of such dams—anumberthathaspaddlers lickingtheirchops.Hemlock certainly qualified as obsolete.Since its turbines were turned off in 1957,the dam had done little more than provide


WIRE THE WATERIn 2000, when Georgia suffered asevere drought, the Flint River water-shed nearly ran dry. The problem?The region’s 6,750 center-pivot irriga-tion systems sprinkled not just cropsbut also rocky, fallow ground. So in2004, researchers at the Universityof Georgia, with the help of the NatureConservancy, connected 22 farmers’fields to a computerized soil map.Result: The farmers could selectwhich areas to water with the click ofa mouse, preventing incidental waste.The system saved some 150 milliongallons of water. This year, the con-servation group, called the Flint RiverBasin Partnership, will insert moistureprobes in 27 pilot fields. Eventually, theprobes could trigger the irrigation sys-tems automatically, ensuring that onlythe fields that need water get it.“Im-plemented on a large scale,”says FRBPdirector David Reckford,“this couldconserve billions of gallons.” —R.K.


BRING DOWN THE BIG ONESWill four contested dams on Washington’s Lower Snake River ever come out? FormerInterior secretary (and unapologetic salmon lover) BRUCE BABBITT makes the case.

These fish go all the way up to Redfish Lake, at 6,500 feet, 900 miles from the ocean. It’sa natural phenomenon with no parallel anywhere in the world. The evidence is quite clearthat were we to remove four dams on the Snake River, fish teetering on extinction couldbe rescued. The only way the dams will come down is by congressional authorization, butthe administration has the bully pulpit and ought to be using it. This administration is fail-ing on that account, just as previous administrations have. I’m not suggesting that wewere free of blame in the Clinton years. At the very early stages of this analysis, it was notclear to me that dam removal was the only option. Having said that, we should have beenmore aggressive about getting this issue into the open. We now have 12 years of analysis,and public opinion is evolving. The case for the removal of these dams is so strong, I haveno doubt they will come down. It isn’t going to happen in the next five years. But I thinkthere’s a good chance it will in 20. —AS TOLD TO GRAYSON SCHAFFER


The author on adamless Trout Creek

OUTSIDEONLINE.COM Outside 95

CH

RIS

TIA

NH

EEB

/RED

UX

Outside: So is it really safeto swim in the Hudson?MATTHIESSEN: From Junethrough September, theHudson is basically a 150-mile beach. You can safelyswim in the river most daysin most places, whereas 30years ago it wasn’t safe toswim anywhere. Riverkeeperhas established a water-quality-monitoring programso that, ultimately, riverlovers can use real-time datato determine whether or notit’s safe to swim“today.”

What have been River-keeper’s biggest wins?After a 30-year battle, IndianPoint nuclear plant has beenordered to reduce by 97percent their cooling-waterwithdrawals from the river,which slaughter an estimat-ed one billion fish each year.General Electric has also fi-nally started its long-overduecleanup of PCBs from the

riverbed. And Riverkeeperspearheaded the establish-ment of the Hudson RiverEstuary Preserve, which willfacilitate land preservationalong the Hudson for gener-ations to come.

How can smaller conser-vation groups have thatkind of success? You haveRFK Jr. on your board.There’s no question thatBobby Kennedy is a bigasset. But Riverkeeper hasbuilt a brand and reputation,apart from Bobby, as a highlyeffective group of advocates.We’re respected by friendsand foes alike for being toughbut reasonable. We’re aboutgetting things done.

What’s the biggest chal-lenge facing the Hudson?Wastewater treatment. InNew York and across thecountry, the federal govern-ment has abandoned its role

as primary investor in infra-structure. We also havethese antiquated systemsthat combine sewage andstorm water. After heavyrains, raw sewage is divertedright into our waterways.

Ick. How about a positivevision for the Hudson?In 30 years, we’ll have elimi-nated pollution through aself-regulating pollution tax.The valley’s homes andbusinesses will be powered,heated, and cooled by re-newable energy. Americanand short-nosed sturgeon,striped bass, American shad,and herring will be thriving inthe river again.

How realistic is that?It’s undoubtedly ambitious—but very much within reach.What most people don’t re-alize is that we, and not cor-porations, have all the power.We just don’t exercise it.

THE OLD GUARDSThey pick the big fights: Con Edison, General Electric, Exxon. Riverkeeper, founded by fisher-men some 40 years ago, made its name by confronting industrial giants to protect the HudsonRiver. Today, the group’s legislative battles continue, as do its day-to-day operations: patrollingthe river for small-time polluters. But as a cleaner Hudson experiences a surge in recreation,the work only gets more complicated. Riverkeeper president Alex Matthiessen, 46, has run theorganization for the past decade but is leaving to form an environmental-consulting firm. Onthe eve of his departure, MICHAEL ROBERTS asked him about Riverkeeper’s legacy.

Want to pick a fight? Consult ourguide to the nation’s top river-advocacy groups.

AMERICAN RIVERSamericanrivers.orgThis Washington, D.C.–based organi-zation ranks America’s ten most en-dangered rivers every year. BEST FOR:Educating yourself; people who don’tlike swimming near diapers

SAVE OUR WILD SALMONwildsalmon.orgA small, Portland, Oregon–based group,SOS leads the fight for the removal offour dams on the Lower Snake Riverblamed for the collapse of the Colum-bia’s salmon run. BEST FOR: Monkey-wrenchers; spey-rod owners

WATERKEEPER ALLIANCEwaterkeeper.orgWaterkeeper, which has nearly 200affiliates on six continents, specializesin busting polluters. BEST FOR:Kennedys; Gulf Coast oystermen

AMERICAN WHITEWATERamericanwhitewater.orgThis North Carolina–based group advo-cates for paddlers’ interests and coordi-nates nationwide river cleanups. BESTFOR: Toyota Tacoma drivers

TROUT UNLIMITEDtu.orgTU originated in Michigan 50 years agoand now has 400 chapters. The currentfocus is on restoring native fish—Atlantic salmon, westslope cutthroat,golden trout—to native habitats. BESTFOR: Tobacco chewers —K.D.


JUMP IN

irrigation for farms and block steelhead. Theday Trout Creek’s natural flowwas restored,someone spotted a steelheadupstream.A fewmonths later, inMarch 2010, I stood

on the bank with Drevo and another kayakbuddy.The streamwas 20 feetwide, lined byDouglas firs, and dry—the storms had nevermaterialized. For fourmiles we bloodied ourknuckles scraping down the rocks:Comehellor low water, we’d paddle whatever newrapids existed. Finally, we arrived at the olddam site and found … a wide mudflat. Wedrifted throughuntil thewater threadedgen-tly between some boulders. Trout Creek’snewest rapid was a Class II. Next time, I’mbringingmy fly rod.

Riverkeeper is forcingGeneral Electric to dredge

2.4 million cubic yardsof PCBs from the Hudson.

river isanonnavigablewaterway—thecriteriafor a river to be afforded protection underthe CleanWater Act.We set out to prove theriver’snavigabilityby…navigating it. Itwasasatireofarivertrip,butaswithallgoodsatire,it had apoint.In the end, the cops—likely swayed by the

documentary film crew trailing us—let uscomplete our trip. A fewweeks later, follow-ing a barrage of local news stories, the EPAoffered special protections for theL.A.River.There’s more good news, too. In 2007, the

city government adopted a $2 billion revital-ization master plan, prescribing everythingfrom parkland and bike paths along the riverto a rainwater-diversion scheme thatwoulddirect runoff into the ground, replenishingthe aquifer. The plan will take more than 20years to implement, but it could eventuallymean the swapping of some concrete banksfor a vegetation-lined riverbed.The utopian vision has been slow to devel-

op, due to budget shortages, but last year thecity invested$17millioninasix-acreriversideparcel that will join two other recently creat-ed parks. “The political will to revitalize theriver is there,” says Carol Armstrong, the LosAngelesRiverMasterPlanprojectmanager.If our tripwas any indication, the civicwill

is there, too.As the cops left thebankandourgroup stepped into our kayaks to continuedownstream, the crowd that had gatheredabove let out a raucous cheer, glad thatsomeone was treating the country’s ugliestwaterway like,well, a river.

quickly as possible.Which is highly ironic;since then, the city has spent billions pipingwater in from the Owens Valley and the Col-oradoRiver.Now rain courses into the concrete-lined

ditch,which promptly floods—and escapinga floodingL.A.River is like trying toclimbthewalls of awater slide.Rescues anddrowningsarenot infrequent.Asa flood-control facility,it works beautifully. As an ecological habitatandaplayground, it’s a disaster.Our expedition aimed to call attention to a

2008Corps decision that could strip parts ofthe river of its CleanWater Act protections.TheCorpshadargued itmightnothave juris-diction to prosecute polluters because the

TED

SO

QU

I/C

OR

BIS

L.A. STORYRenegade kayakers help give theugliest river in America a faceliftBY FREDERICK REIMERS

TWO YEARS AGO, some friends and I pad-dled51milesof theLosAngelesRiver,past theback lots ofWarner Bros. and Universal stu-dios,past thechemical refineries,and,finally,to within sight of theQueenMary, the cruiseship turned hotel in Long BeachHarbor. Ourcoursewas a ribbonof algae-chokedwater ina 400-foot-wide, graffiti-lined concretebasin. If you’ve seenGrease orTerminator 2,you’ve seen theL.A.River. Itspaved riverbedserved as the set for a hot-rod race in theformer and Schwarzenegger’s motorcycle-vs.-big-rig chase in the latter.We, too, saw vehicles in the river: mainte-

nance trucks removing plastic bags andspray-paint cans. We also saw great blueherons and black-necked stilts, as well asstrangernative inhabitants.Oneguycampingon an island gave me the lowdown on thecommunity of homeless people living there.Hewas naked.His pet teddy bear,whichwaspink, floated nearby, tethered to shore. Fol-lowing our chat I paddled back into thewaterbutwas interrupted:Apolice helicopter hov-ered overhead, and over the loudspeaker thepilot orderedme to shore.PaddlingtheLosAngelesRiver is illegalbe-

cause, technically speaking, it’s not a river atallbut,rather,a“flood-control facility.”Inthetwenties and thirties, it was still a naturallyfloodingriverthatranapproximately50milesfrom the San Fernando Valley to Long Beachand inundated the city several times. So in1938 the ArmyCorps of Engineers paved thechannel to move water out of the city as

At press time, Colorado legislators were haggling over a 30-year-old dispute that tack-les an essential—or absurd, depending on your perspective—question: Can a personown a river? Since 1979, landowners in the state have insisted that rafters passingthrough their property could be prosecuted if they so much as set foot on the riverbed.Rafters say no way: Rivers are theirs to float freely, as long as they don’t trash the banks.But Colorado’s law has remained murky—allowing some rafting companies to float“historically run” rivers, while permitting property owners to block other waterways(occasionally with barbed wire). This spring, the issue sprang up again when a TaylorRiver landowner tried to block passage through his land. Now, landowners and raftcompanies are haggling in court and introducing ballot initiatives for next November’selections. Some experts say the issue could take years to sort out. So before thingsget ugly—and they will get ugly—we’re going to chime in: Let’s dispense with theantiquated notion that someone has a right to erect fences through moving water.Roadblocks have no place on navigable rivers. —THE EDITORS


LET ’EM RUN


In 20 years, theL.A. River could

be lined by parklandand bike paths.

96 Outside

outside magazine: current affairs

Documents