From: Kieran Suckling [ksuckling@sw-center.org]
Sent: Friday, November 05, 1999 8:21 PM
To: michaelr@sw-center.org; tschulke@sw-center.org; bsegee@sw-center.org; ksuckling@sw-center.org; ngreenwald@sw-center.org; sbuffum@sw-center.org; sjimerfield@sw-center.org; tortuga@sw-center.org; sdiehn@sw-center.org; Will; alopez@sw-center.org; rsilver@sw-center.org; lforce@sw-center.org; arolfe@sw-center.org; dhogan@sw-center.org; luddite@people-link.com; pgalvin@sw-center.org; smudget@hotmail.com; lydiamillet@earthlink.net; lwells@azstarnet.com
Subject: BIODIVERSITY ALERT #211
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>
             CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

           <www.sw-center.org>      11-3-99      #211
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>

§ YAVAPAI-APACHE TRIBE CALLS FOR RESTORATION
   FREE FLOWING FOSSIL CREEK

§ FREE FOSSIL CREEK! JOIN PROTEST AGAINST THE
   DAMMING/DIVERSION OF ARIZONA'S RIVERS

§ JUDGE RULES GILA RIVER FISH IMPERILED BY
   CENTRAL ARIZONA PROJECT- SETS STAGE FOR
   CHALLENGE TO MITIGATION MEASURES

§ FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE PLANNED TO RE-LOCATE
   WOLVES TO GILA WILDERNESS- POLITICS MAY
   KILL PLAN

YAVAPAI-APACHE TRIBE CALLS FOR RESTORATION
FREE FLOWING FOSSIL CREEK
In a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC),
the Yavapai-Apache Tribe has asked to be granted official
intervenor status in the Arizona Public Service Company's
application to relicense its diversion dams and power plants on
Fossil Creek. The Center for Biological Diversity and other
environmental groups were accepted as intervenors in the past.

The Yavapai-Apache informed FERC that Fossil Creek is not
only an integral part of their ancestral home lands, but that this
importance continues to this day. FERC is the federal agency
responsible for allowing Arizona Public Service to divert the
entire flow of Fossil Creek. The Tribe, joining the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Center, and other
environmental groups , called for the return of full flows to Fossil
Creek.
     _____________________

FREE FOSSIL CREEK! JOIN PROTEST AGAINST THE
DAMMING/DIVERSION OF ARIZONA'S RIVERS
For 90 years the Arizona Public Service Company (APS) has
dammed and diverted 98% of the entire flow of Fossil Creek
to run their Irving and Childs power plants.

This gorgeous stream, which flows from one of
Arizona's largest springs, is being sacrificed to produce
one-tenth of one percent of all the electrical power generated
by APS. The first dam diverts nearly the entire flow of the
creek, leaving only the first quarter mile of Fossil Creek
functioning naturally. The rest, a 25-mile stretch, lies barren
while the water is transported in an ugly scar of a metal
flume from plant to plant, never returning to the thirsty
streambed.

Long run on a series of temporary permits, APS has submitted
a 30 year application for re-licensing to the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) under the Federal Power Act.
The Center has asked FERC to deny the application. Ninety
years of corporate greed is enough.  Full flows need to be
returned to Fossil Creek.  APS' dams and the two power plants
must be de-commissioned.

Join the Center for Biological Diversity in a protest against
continuing the destruction of Fossil Creek by APS. On 11-18-99
a large group of river activists will gather at the APS headquarters
in Phoenix.  APS' headquarters is on the northwest corner of
5th St. and Van Buren. The gathering will be from 11am to 2 pm.
Signs, materials, carpools, parking, and refreshments will be
provided. Contact Lisa Force for more information 602-246-6498,
lforce@sw-center.org.

If you can't make it to the protest, call or write APS today. Tell
them to withdraw their application, de-commission the power
plants, and restore full flows to Fossil Creek.

Contact:

  Bill Post, President, Arizona Public Service Company
  P.O. Box 53999, Phoenix, AZ  85072-3999
  Phone (602) 250-2588, Fax (602) 250-3002

  Richard Snell, Chairman, Pinnacle West Capital Corporation
  P.O. Box 52132, Phoenix, AZ  85072-2132
  Phone (602) 379-2600, Fax (602) 379-2625
     __________________________

JUDGE RULES GILA RIVER FISH IMPERILED BY
CENTRAL ARIZONA PROJECT- SETS STAGE FOR
CHALLENGE TO MITIGATION MEASURES
On 9-30-99, federal judge David Ezra issued a ruling that
exotic fish and bacteria which will enter the Gila River Basin
(including the San Pedro River and Aravaipa Creek) through the
Central Arizona Project are likely to jeopardize the continued
existence of the loach minnow, spikedace, razorback sucker,
and Gila topminnow.

The Central Arizona Project is a complex system of canals
which divert and transport Colorado River water over 350
miles to southeast Arizona. The financial boondoggle has
bankrupted several water conservation districts, contributes
to desperate ecological problems in the Colorado River
Delta, and will pump polluted water and dangerous
exotic species in the Gila River and its tributaries. The
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service issued a jeopardy decision on
the project and was sued by the Central Arizona Water
Conservation District which argued that the native fish
would not be seriously threatened, and that expensive
mitigation measures are therefore not necessary. The Center
intervened on behalf of the Fish & Wildlife Service,
demonstrating that the threat is enormous and demonstrable.

With the water industry's suit out of the way, Ezra will
proceed to here a related suit by the Center, arguing that
the proposed mitigation measures are not sufficient to
protect the imperiled native fish of the Gila River Basin.
The Center is represented by Jay Touchton of EarthLaw.
    ________________________

FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE PLANNED TO RE-LOCATE
WOLVES TO GILA WILDERNESS- POLITICS MAY KILL
PLAN
In the wake of his ouster as head of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service's Mexican Wolf Recovery Team, David Parsons has
revealed that under his leadership, the agency had planned to
immediately re-locate a small number of  recently re-captured
wolves to the Gila/Aldo Leopold Wilderness complex and to
develop a long-term plan to reintroduce captive bred wolves
directly to the Gila. "There are large, roadless, car-less,
cattleless areas in the Gila National Forest, about 800,000
acres that meet that criteria," Parsons told the Albuquerque
Journal on 10-30-99.

The Fish & Wildlife Service broke an agreement with Parsons to
allow him to opt for early retirement and then be re-hired on a
contract basis. At best, his ouster will delay the Gila release,
at worst, it may signal a political decision by the agency to kill
the re-location plan.

The Center has developed a "Wolf Safe Haven Plan" in 1998 to
reintroduce Mexican gray wolves to the Gila/Aldo Leopold
wilderness complex:
<http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/activist/wolfhaven.html>
_____________________________________________________________

Kierán Suckling                     ksuckling@sw-center.org
Executive Director                  520.623.5252 phone
Center for Biological Diversity     520.623.9797 fax
<http://www.sw-center.org>          pob 710, tucson, az 85702-0710