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UN I V E R S I T Y D A I L Y K A N S A N
Monday, January 30, 1995
5A
Boaters say dredging Kansas River would hurt area protected by law
Noah Musser / KANSAN
By Paul Todd Kansan staff writer
Some Lawrence river-goers are trying to drown a new request for a permit to dredge the Kansas river for sand.
The Kansas Canoeers Association and other Lawrence boaters have written letters to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requesting a hearing on a dredging permit request filed by Topeka's Victory Sand and Gravel Co. The boaters said the dredging operation, which would remove sand from the river bottom so that it could be sold, would be dangerous and illegal.
Some boaters are concerned that the dredging operation would make the river unnaviable bv boaters.
Lawrence resident Joe Hyde canoes the Kansas river year-round. He said the problem was that water currents would carry boats toward the dredging operation.
"The inertia of the river throws the water to the left side," he said. "That is where the river takes boats."
Hyde said the river was too shallow on the right side of the river to navigate, so with the dredging operation on the left, the river would be cut off to boaters.
Robert Smith, Corps of Engineers ecology, said passage on the river also would
be a problem if the pontoons, which hold pipes and cables as they cross the river, stretched across the entire river.
"If the permit is granted, we are going to have to work something out where safe passage is provided," he said.
Smith said the piping could be raised so boaters could pass underneath, and the dredging operation would have to stay at least 200 feet from the left bank of the river.
He said the permit should require Victory to work with the Corps of Engineers to provide safe passage for boaters.
"We have no reason to believe they would not be cooperative." Smith said.
But Sam Segraves of the Kansas Canoers Association said that even though dredging operations were passable, they were dangerous and would force boaters to stay away, thus illegally closing the river.
The Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri rivers are the only rivers in Kansas open to public boaters. They cannot be closed to boaters at any time, but Segraves said the pontoons and cables stretching across the river would scare boaters because of the danger of an accident.
"I believe it is a violation of the law," he said. "It would basically close down the
"The recreation aspect is the most serious violation in this permit," Segraves said.
most popular and heavily-used section of river in the state."
Victory Sand and Gravel filed a request with the Corps of Engineers for a permit to dredge a stretch of the Kansas River in Jefferson County, just upstream from Riverfront park.
Since the request was filed, activist groups, individuals and government officials have sent several letters to the Corps asking for a public hearing and have called upon the public to do the same.
Thursday was the deadline for sending in requests for a public hearing to the Corps.
Robert Smith of the Corps of Engineers said the Corps received several dozen requests for a hearing, including requests from the Lawrence City Commission and the Douglas County Commission. Smith said the Corps would make a decision on holding the hearing within the next few weeks and that recreation issues would be high priority in the decision.
"It is my understanding from the letters we have received that this is a high use area for recreation," Smith said. "Then it becomes very important."
KU students lobby for environmental changes
Environs petitions Congress to revise act
Paul Todd
Kansan staff writer
The Endangered Species Act saved the bald eagle, the national symbol, from extinction. And now a group of KU students is trying to save the Endangered Species Act.
KU Environs, a campus environmentalist group, has been lobbying Congress for the past two years to revise to the Endangered Species Act. The additions would protect whole habitats, not just individual species, but the changes are not expected to make it through the new Republican-dominated Congress.
Environs members began writing letters to Sen. Nancy Kassebaum in the spring of 1993. Last fall, the group sent petitions in support of the proposed revisions with more than 300 students' signatures to Kassebaum. Environs has an information table in the Kansas Union every Wednesday and plans to write more letters to Kassebaum, Sen. Bob Dole, Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Missouri, and Rep. Jan Meyers.
The Endangered Species Act, which was passed in 1973, protects animals that are in danger of becoming extinct.
Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Massachusetts, proposed a bill which would protect whole ecosystems in which endangered species live instead of protecting single species without regard to their natural habitats.
The revisions call for recovery plans to be developed for endangered or threatened species and their habitats.
"It makes a lot of sense," said Amy Trainer, president of Environs. "The act would study whole ecosystems' health instead of just single species' survival."
But Robert Glicksman, professor of law, said the revisions probably would not pass and that the Republicans might pass an alternative bill that would weaken the Endangered Species Act already in place.
The Republican bill conflicts with Studds' bill because it would not protect threatened species' habitats if protecting them would
Kansas species on the endangered list
ENDANGERED IN KANSAS
The following are some animals, all native to Kansas, listed as endangered species:
Black-footed Ferret
Gray Myotis (bat)
Bald Eagle
Whooping Crane
Peregrine Falcon
Palid Sturgeon
American Burying Beetle
damage local economies. The Republican bill also would prevent new species from being listed as endangered until the Endangered Species Act was reauthorized by Congress this session.
Lisa Gagnon, press secretary for Rep. Pat Roberts, said Roberts' main concern was the effect that adding species or habitats to the protected list would have on local economies. The Republican bill says that an area cannot be designated critical habitat if the "benefits of such exclusion outweigh the benefits of designation of the area as critical habitat."
But John Simmons, collection manager at the Natural History Museum, said that instances where protection of an endangered species halted some huge economic project were rare.
Trainer said the problem was that too many people didn't consider protection of endangered species economically beneficial.
"The whole purpose of the act is to say that we can't measure everything on economic terms," Trainer said. "We have to value our natural capital, whether it's economic or not."
Trainer said Congress should not start hacking away at the Endangered Species Act because it was one of the strongest and simplest pieces of environmental legislation in existence.
"Congress should not be playing God and deciding which species survive and which don't," she said.
MEN'S POST-SEASON BASKETBALL APPLICATIONS
ATTN: STUDENTS
Applications for Men's Basketball Post-Season Tournament action are available now at the Athletic Ticket Office located in the East lobby of Allen Fieldhouse.
Don't miss out on your chance to see the Jayhawks in action during these 1995 events:
Big 8 Tournament
NCAA Regionals
Final Four
Athletic Ticket Office East Lobby - Allen Fieldhouse 8:00 am-5:00 pm
Application Deadline: Feb.17,1995