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Hearing Set for Dredging on Upper Salt Fork River Prairie Rivers to Serve as Friend of the CourtChampaign, March 1, 2004: Today in Circuit Court, Judge Jones set a hearing date of March 17, 2004, to determine whether the Upper Salt Fork Drainage District's petition to dredge and clear almost twenty miles of the river should be approved. That date leaves only two weeks for interested parties and objectors to review yet another amended petition that was filed by the Drainage District at the court hearing today.In a Friend of the Court brief filed Friday, Prairie Rivers Network argued that re-dredging the entire Upper Salt Fork River is a costly, environmentally harmful, and unnecessary approach to solving localized drainage problems and that alternatives need to be considered that provide drainage while also protecting recreation, wildlife, and the environment. "Contrary to what some have asserted, the Upper Salt Fork is a river, not a ditch, and historic records show it was a river long before the drainage district straightened and dredged it," said Jean Flemma, Executive Director. "We understand and support the fact that it now provides much needed drainage for local farmers and the community and will continue to do so, but it also serves many other functions, including habitat for fish and wildlife, and these functions deserve the protection afforded to them under the law. " Concerned that the drainage district's plan would violate state law by failing to protect the environment as required under the drainage code, Prairie Rivers sought the legal standing to object to the proposal last fall. On December 30, Judge Jones denied Prairie Rivers that standing, but asked the group to act as friends of the court. The brief filed Friday was prepared in response to that request. In addition to failing to protect environmental values, the drainage district's petition has no cost benefit analysis demonstrating the expected increase in crop yields and whether the value of these increases will exceed the high cost of the project. Nor does it include any identification of where specific drainage problems exist that the district claiming to address. Finally, it fails to include the consideration of alternatives to top to bottom dredging as a means of providing the needed drainage. Instead the drainage district is operating under the premise that dredging and clear cutting the channel from top to bottom is the only solution to address yet-to-be-defined drainage problems because that is how its always been done. In a statement filed as part of the Friends of the Court brief, the Salt Fork River Partners said, "·As we no longer use horse-driven plows to till the soil, we should no longer employ outdated methods of drainage in our watershed management." The Friend of the Court brief filed by Prairie Rivers does suggest alternative approaches that could and should be considered when implementing drainage activities. It also includes an analysis by University of Illinois drainage experts of the information needed to make drainage maintenance decisions that can provide cost effective solutions while considering environmental mandates and identifies other experts including streams specialists for the Illinois Department of Agriculture. The brief also includes supporting statements in opposition to the Upper Salt Fork Drainage District's proposal from local chapters of Sierra Club, Audubon Society, Izaak Walton League, and the Salt Fork River Partners, and from statewide organizations such as the the Illinois Stewardship Alliance. "A recent poll by the Illinois Natural History Survey shows that 66% of the citizens of the state think more protection needs to be given to fish and wildlife habitat along our streams and rivers while only 15% disagree with that view," said Flemma. "We and many other groups in Champaign County and around the state agree with the majority." | |