The organization American Rivers names 10 “endangered rivers” every year.

The organization American Rivers names 10 “endangered rivers” every year. Which ones are they for 2005 -and are there any success stories pertaining to past nominees?

– Carolyn Cacciotti, Bridgeport, CT

For 20 years now, the organization American Rivers, in its annual “Most Endangered Rivers” report, has highlighted rivers around the U.S. that have the worst chronic problems in need of attention. This year the organization took a new approach and focused on those “facing the most uncertain futures.”

American Rivers” “10 Most Endangered Rivers for 2005” are: the Susquehanna River flowing through New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland; McCrystal Creek in New Mexico; Colorado”s Fraser River; the Skykomish in Washington state; Tennessee”s Roan Creek; the Santee River in South Carolina; Ohio”s Little Miami River; Utah”s Price River; and the Tuolumne and Santa Clara rivers, both in California.

These rivers face a variety of threats, mostly involving pollution due to runaway real estate development and poor sewage treatment, and water diversions from dam projects and from excessive near-shore development. McCrystal Creek faces the possibility of methane drilling in its coal bed, which will pollute the creek. And in Tennessee, Roan Creek is neighbor to a large dairy farm that plans to build animal waste “lagoons” near its shores that could eventually send waves of liquid manure downriver.

The Susquehanna is the most endangered on the list. Throughout the river”s watershed, aging sewer systems discharge enormous volumes of raw or poorly treated sewage that eventually flows into the Chesapeake Bay. “Unless lawmakers invest in prevention and cleanup, the Susquehanna will remain among the nation”s dirtiest rivers,” reports American Rivers. Happily, on the day American Rivers released its report, the state of Maryland backed away from plans to weaken water quality standards for the river.

Other success stories abound as well. Six months after the Tennessee River appeared on the 2004 list, the Knoxville Utility Board committed to eliminating sanitary sewer overflows into the Tennessee River within 10 years. After Massachusetts” Ipswich River appeared on the 2003 list, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection issued new regulations to limit the amount of water that municipalities can draw out during low flow periods. And following American Rivers” inclusion of New York”s Hudson River on its 2001 list, then-EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman ordered General Electric to foot the bill to clean up tons of PCBs that were contaminating the river bed.

Besides issuing its annual report and lobbying for better clean water legislation and enforcement, American Rivers works directly to remediate watershed problems across the country. Working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), for example, the group is removing barriers to salmon, striped bass and other species that migrate between fresh and salt water in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and California. So far, they’ve removed 13 unwanted dams, and created fish bypasses for six others.

CONTACTS: American Rivers, www.americanrivers.org ; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), www.noaa.gov .