Powder River Named as Nation's Sixth Most Endangered

by Michele Barlow

For the second consecutive year, the Powder River has been named one of the nation's most endangered rivers by American Rivers, the country's leading river-conservation group. The group placed the Powder River sixth on its 2002 list of 11 rivers facing the most urgent and immediate threats.

The burgeoning coalbed methane industry in the Powder River Basin (PRB) creates an unusual threat for a western river: too much low-quality coalbed methane discharge water entering the river at the wrong time of year. At stake is what stream ecologist Dr. Daniel Gustafson describes as "the best interior prairie, big sandy river on the continent."

The PRB is historic country. Here, Crazy Horse confirmed his reputation as a masterful warrior and tactician. The basin was the site of the Johnson County War, where wealthy cattle barons employed an army of Texas gunmen to wipe out "squatters." Located at the head of the Powder River drainage is the famous "Hole in the Wall," where Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and other outlaws found refuge.

The Powder River is a healthy remnant of a once vast and unspoiled river ecosystem that spanned the Great Plains. In 1999, The Nature Conservancy reported that, "In an inventory of all streams in the Great Plains of Wyoming, the Powder River was found to support the most intact assemblage of fish species," several of which are now so rare that they have been considered for protection under the Endangered Species Act.