Ivory-billed deflates river-tapping project
Posted on Friday, July 21, 2006
A $ 319 million project to pump water out of the White River to irrigate farmland in eastern Arkansas was halted Thursday by a federal judge who ordered a more thorough assessment of the project's effect on the reportedly rediscovered ivory-billed woodpecker.
"They put the cart before the horse,"U. S. District Judge Bill Wilson Jr. said in a 31-page order, referring to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.
After the elusive woodpecker, an endangered species, was reported spotted in 2004 - for the first time in 60 years - in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge north of Stuttgart and the sighting was endorsed as official in 2005 by the U. S. Department of the Interior, the agencies re-evaluated the effects of the irrigation project.
The Grand Prairie irrigation project's pumping station - its most contentious component - was located near DeValls Bluff, less than 20 miles from where the bird reportedly had been seen and filmed.
The Corps ultimately concluded that the project wasn't likely to harm the woodpecker's habitat, and that led to a lawsuit - one of many concerning the project over the years - that Wilson decided Thursday in Little Rock.
Wilson said the agencies' assessment in light of the news of the bird wasn't thorough enough. He criticized the Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to ask the Corps to conduct a survey of "all suitable habitat within a one-mile radius of any construction site in a forested area,"when the service already had determined that the woodpecker "forages between. 75 miles to 1. 5 miles from their nest cavities, with an outer limit of 2. 5 miles for a lone male, and an even greater winter range."
The judge also noted," Surveying areas that are adjacent to construction sites does not take into account areas that are indirectly affected by water diversion."
By limiting the survey, Wilson said, the Fish and Wildlife Service "disregarded the need to identify [the woodpecker's ] habitat in wetlands that will be indirectly affected by the Corps' action."
The Fish and Wildlife Service and the Corps, he said," cannot rationally explain"how they concluded that the pumping station would have "no adverse impact"on the bird's habitat. He ordered that work on the project cease while the two agencies redo an "informal consultation"to examine the potential effect on the bird's nesting, roosting and active foraging habits within 2. 5 miles of any construction. Wilson also ordered them to identify and inspect for signs of such activities "in all trees 12 inches or greater in areas that will be most affected by changes in water level."In addition, he ordered nesting, roosting and foraging surveys "in the forest areas adjacent to canals and pipelines."STARTS AND STOPS
FOR DECADES For Richard Mays of Heber Springs, an attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the National Wildlife Federation and the Arkansas Wildlife Federation, the ruling was wonderful news.
"It's a very well-written opinion, and I think Judge Wilson, in particular, has shown the integrity and the willingness and the fortitude that I think is required to uphold the environmental and wildlife laws even in the face of pressures from the economic and development interests, which I believe to be the intent of Congress,"Mays said.
He said that Wilson "has a history of that, and I think it's important that he be given credit for that."
The U. S. Department of Justice, which represented the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Corps, is "still reviewing the order"and declined to comment on it, Cynthia Magnuson, a department spokesman in Washington, said Thursday.
John Edwards, former executive director of the White River Irrigation District, a sponsor of the Grand Prairie project, noted that the project has started and stopped for decades because of litigation and jurisdictional battles. He said it was first authorized in 1950, then rescinded by Congress in 1986 and finally reauthorized in 1996.
Edwards said with a chuckle that he even has a letter from President Truman to Arkansas Gov. Sid McMath "saying he hoped the Grand Prairie Project could be constructed sometime in the near future."
"Things take time when you're trying to make change,"he said. Noting that he has "great respect"for Judge Wilson, Edward emphasized," The main thing we want to do is ensure that we have a project that minimizes the impact not only to the ivorybilled woodpecker, but allows us to have an environment that will provide a habitat for other types of wildlife as well."
'SERIOUS WATER CRISIS' Still, Edwards said," We are facing a serious water crisis in eastern Arkansas. We cannot continue to manage our groundwater the way we have in the past."The Grand Prairie project, proposed by the Arkansas Soil & Water Commission, now the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, was designed by the Corps to protect aquifers crucial to farmers, area residents and local industry in the eastern part of the state. The Grand Prairie Region consists of more than 500, 000 acres. It is a major rice-producing area.
As summed up in a December 2005 opinion from the 8 th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis," The region relies on groundwater primarily from the Alluvial Aquifer and the Sparta Aquifer. The Alluvial Aquifer provides ninety percent of the agricultural water used in the region, and it will be depleted by 2015 unless protective action is taken. Depletion of the Alluvial Aquifer would cause severe economic hardship to the region; seventy-seven percent of the irrigated crop would be lost, and rice production would decline by twenty-three percent."
The opinion continued," The Sparta Aquifer provides drinking water to local residences and supplies the water needs of local industry, but the suitability of its drinking water will eventually be destroyed if it continues to be diverted for other uses as the Alluvial Aquifer is depleted."
The 8 th Circuit opinion upheld a ruling of U. S. District Judge Thomas Eisele in September 2004 dismissing a lawsuit by environmental groups seeking to halt the project on the grounds that it would ruin the White River and destroy prime fish and waterfowl habitats. The groups say the farmers in eastern Arkansas can find other, more efficient ways of solving the water crisis. Eisele's ruling permitting construction of the pump station to begin came before news of the woodpecker - a discovery that some authorities doubt, citing blurry images of the bird captured on film and the inability to confirm the sighting with another sighting despite continual efforts. Nevertheless, Wilson wrote that parties on both sides of the lawsuit "have stipulated that the [bird ] exists, so for purposes of this case, it does."NEW SURVEY COULD
TAKE A YEAR David Carruth, president of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation, one of the plaintiffs, said Thursday that despite the "naysayers"no one has proven that the bird doesn't exist.
"The debate will rage until the proverbial million-dollar shot is produced,"he said, referring to a still or moving photograph that will be indisputable.
Wilson's ruling won't have any immediate effect on construction of the pump station because a lack of funding brought the project to a halt in May. The Corps has since been awaiting a hoped-for infusion of new funds before resuming work.
Bob Anderson, spokesman for the Corps' Memphis District, which oversees the White River, said Thursday that construction of the pump station "is probably halfway done"at this point.
He said that he didn't know how long it might take for a more thorough survey of the area to be completed in accordance with Wilson's order. Mays estimated it could take a year.
Randy Sargent, an attorney for the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, D. C., said Thursday in a news release," Everyone knows that wildlife needs a home. In this case, we need to look twice before destroying the home of this critically endangered bird."
She later added," The ivorybill depends on these forested wetlands for survival. The Grand Prairie Project would cause irreversible damage to this ecosystem, which is already threatened by a changing climate. Future generations depend on us to make sure this home for wildlife stays healthy and unharmed."
Noting the closeness of the pumping station to the place where the bird was reportedly spotted, Carruth called the Corps' decision to forge ahead after a "cursory"study "reckless and irresponsible."
"The law is very clear on this issue,"he said. "If you are going to build a project that pumps 158 billion gallons of water from an endangered species habitat each year, you have to do the proper scientific research to ensure it will not harm that species."
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