Yesterday, Prairie Rivers Network and our partners in the Nicollet Island Coalition released a report condemning proposed expansion of 7 of the 29 locks that aid navigation along the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers got Congressional authorization in 2007 to double the size of the locks, at a potential cost to taxpayers of $2.2 billion. Our report shows that the modest benefits the project aims to achieve can be achieved much more cheaply through other means. View our press release here. Download the Big Price – Little Benefit report here.
Tri-States Public Radio (Macomb, IL) covered the story.
The toll on river health of the Corps-maintained navigation system on the Upper Mississippi River is tremendous – the 29 locks and dams have altered the free-flowing and dynamic river between Minneapolis and St. Louis into a static series of enormous, homogeneous reservoirs. {Continue Reading »}
- Chicago ranks 14th of the top 30 cities that are at high heat risk
The National Wildlife Federation, NWF, recently posted a report titled “Global Warming Bringing More Extreme Heat Waves.” The report details how:
Global warming will bring more extreme heat waves
Urban air pollution could be exacerbated by more extreme heat
Heat waves disproportionately impact people who are poor, elderly, children, or have asthma or heart disease, or live in big cities
Natural habitats and agriculture are also vulnerable to heat waves
We can reduce the severity of heat waves and their impacts on vulnerable people
A report released today by the government’s National Research Council says the federal government is failing to protect America’s waterways from pollution caused when heavy rain and snow washes off cities, construction sites and roadways.
The study report is available at: http://www.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/nrc_stormwaterreport.pdf
The NRC press release is at: http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12465
Re: Proposed National Emission Standards for Hazardous Pollutants; and, in the Alternative, Proposed Standards of Performance for New and Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Steam Generating Units; Docket ID No.OAR-2002-0056
February 25, 2004
Thank you for allowing me to testify. My name is Jean Flemma, and I am the Executive Director of Prairie Rivers Network. Prairie Rivers is a statewide river conservation organization that seeks to protect the health and beauty of the rivers and streams of Illinois for the people, fish and wildlife that depend on them to survive. {Continue Reading »}
by Charles Goodall
(This op-ed ran in the Champaign News Gazette )
Chris Hausman, president of the Champaign County Farm Bureau, in a November 30 Guest Commentary wrote that citizens following the Upper Salt Fork River drainage controversy “come away with very little understanding about the true purpose of the waterway.”
If that is true, his commentary only adds to their confusion. Here’s why: {Continue Reading »}
The State of the Fox River Report was put together by the Friends of the Fox River, with a supporting article on the state of our Illinois’ rivers by Prairie Rivers Network.
State of Fox River, 2003
{Continue Reading »}
Yesterday, Prairie Rivers Network and our partners in the Nicollet Island Coalition released a report condemning proposed expansion of 7 of the 29 locks that aid navigation along the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers got Congressional authorization in 2007 to double the size of the locks, at a potential cost to taxpayers of $2.2 billion. Our report shows that the modest benefits the project aims to achieve can be achieved much more cheaply through other means. View our press release here. Download the Big Price – Little Benefit report here.