WASHINGTON – The Mississippi River is the sixth most endangered river in the United States, according to the nonprofit conservation group American Rivers. The organization’s 2022 list blamed new contaminants flowing into the river from farm fertilizers and fossil fuel facilities. The report is most alarmed about the Colorado River, which drains the Rocky Mountains and supplies water to Los Angeles and other Southwest metropolises. Climate change is at fault, said Matt Rice, the group’s director of the Colorado Basin Program. The climate crisis has pushed the Colorado River’s Lake Mead and Lake Powell — the largest and second-largest reservoirs in the country — to unprecedented lows, he said. Last year, he noted, the federal government declared a water shortage on the Colorado for the first time, triggering mandatory water consumptions cuts for states in the Southwest. The list:
Annual update. The American Rivers organization was formed in 1973 to protect wild rivers, to restore damaged rivers and to conserve clean water Claims 300,000 supporters, members and volunteers.
> Colorado River (Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, New Mexico, the nation of Mexico): Threatened by climate change, outdated water management.
> Snake River (Idaho, Washington, Oregon): By four federal dams.
> Mobile River (Alabama): By coal ash contamination.
>Atlantic salmon rivers (Maine): By dams.
> Coosa River (Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama): By agricultural pollution.
> Mississippi River (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana): By pollution, habitat loss.
> Lower Kern River (California): By excessive water withdrawals.
> San Pedro River (Arizona): By excessive water pumping, loss of Clean Water Act protections.
> Los Angeles River (California): By urban development pollution.
> Tar Creek (Oklahoma): By pollution.