TUCSON, Ariz. – Representatives of state governments, tribes and other stakeholder interests in the Missouri River Basin have reached an important agreement in an ongoing effort to recover threatened and endangered species dependent on the river.
At a meeting in Omaha, Neb., Jan. 24, the 40 members of the Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee Drafting Team announced consensus on a recommended charter for a standing Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee, which has already garnered the name ;’MR RIC.”
The announcement followed eight months of negotiation and decades of debate over river operations.
The Drafting Team has sent its recommended charter for MR RIC to the Secretary of the Army, who is expected to act on the recommendations by June. If the secretary adopts the proposed charter, MR RIC, after considering the diverse interests of water users in the basin, would provide:
“Recommendations on a planned Missouri River and tributary study of ways to reduce aquatic and terrestrial habitat loss.
“Input on steps to recover species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act and ongoing efforts to restore the ecosystem to prevent further species decline.
“Guidance on research, implementation and coordination of the existing Missouri River mitigation/recovery plan.
The Missouri River Basin encompasses all or parts of 10 states and the reservations of 28 Indian tribes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began navigation improvements on America’s longest river in the 1800s. Since the 1930s, the Corps and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation have actively managed the river to provide flood control, improve navigation and support a broad range of uses including navigation, irrigation, hydroelectric power, municipal and industrial water supply, recreation, among others.
Beginning in the 1990s, tensions heightened among basin users as the result of drought, competing claims for water, and the listing of two bird species (least tern and piping plover) and one fish (pallid sturgeon) as threatened or endangered under the ESA – all while the Corps was attempting to rewrite its Master Manual of reservoir operations to address these changing circumstances. In 2003, river-related litigation was so extensive that the federal courts invoked special rules to consolidate the many pending lawsuits before one judge in St. Paul, Minn.
With most litigation resolved by 2005, the Corps, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other federal agencies turned attention to their responsibilities under the ESA and the new Master Manual to recover the listed species. Seeking to avoid past conflicts, the federal agencies involved the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (Tucson), created by Congress to advance conflict-resolution in environmental disputes involving federal agencies. A ”situation assessment” by the U.S. Institute recommended the formation of a broadly based stakeholder group to draft a proposed Charter to structure a permanent species recovery committee, authorized recently enacted federal Water Resources Development Act.
In early 2007, the federal agencies and the U.S. Institute formed a drafting team to write the proposed charter. Six states, 15 tribes and representatives of a variety of other interests accepted invitations to join the drafting team. A 19-member review panel was also created to provide independent feedback to the drafting team on its work. The drafting team named co-chairs: Cheryl Chapman, president of MATRIX, an environmental engineering firm in Rapid City, S.D.; and John Thorson, assistant chief administrative law judge, California Public Utilities Commission, in San Francisco. At the request of the drafting team, the U.S. Institute retained professional facilitator and mediator Ruth Nicholson Siguenza of Mill Creek, Wash., and her team to facilitate the effort.
The drafting team held nine meetings in all parts of the basin. A public comment workshop was held in November in Omaha, Neb. A Federal Working Group representing those agencies with responsibilities for the Missouri River has assisted the drafting team in its work.
In announcing the proposed charter, Chapman noted, ”Conflict has been the persistent theme in the basin for 30 years. We have worked in the shadow of these past disputes to generate goodwill among our members and to create the possibility of new approaches to Missouri River problems.”
Thorson said, ”Drafting team members acknowledged early that majority voting rules, even with significant protections for the minority, would perpetuate long-standing resentments and litigation. Consequently, we are recommending a charter premised on consensus decision-making on substantive matters. We believe consensus-based decision-making affords the best opportunity to address species recovery issues.”
The recommended Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee Charter continues the broadly-based membership that has characterized the drafting team itself. The proposed charter provides for representatives from eight basin states, 28 federally recognized Indian tribes and 16 stakeholder categories. As required by WRDA, federal representation is also incorporated into the committee, principally through Corps and USFWS representatives.
The text of the proposed charter and the membership of the drafting team and review committee may be accessed at http://missouririver.ecr.gov.
