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Archaeology paper reports meaning of Indian river names ERNEST HERNDON Associated Press McCOMB, Miss. - The Chickasawhay, one of the finest rivers in the state, also has one of the prettiest-sounding names - Chick-a-sah-HAY. The Choctaw meaning: "Place Where Martins Dance." The name probably referred to a long bluff on the river known as King's Bluff where martins built nests in the bank. That tidbit is in a research paper by University of Southern Mississippi anthropology student Chris McPhail: "Mississippi Rivers: A Study of Choctaw Indian Place-Names of the Streams and Rivers of the State of Mississippi." McPhail pored over...

The Presumpscot River, one of Maine's first industrial waterways, will be at the center of high stakes U.S. Supreme Court arguments Tuesday that could alter the fate of dams and rivers nationwide. An attorney for S.D. Warren in Westbrook hopes to persuade the nation's highest court that Maine has no authority to impose environmental rules on five of its hydro dams along the Presumpscot. Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe will argue the other side: States have a clear right to protect their rivers. S.D. Warren's challenge taps into the national dilemma over dams, which offer renewable, domestically produced energy but...

ST. LOUIS — Intensified development in flood-prone parts of Missouri and California significantly raises the risk of New Orleans-style flooding in urban areas on the Mississippi and Sacramento rivers, researchers said Saturday. Around St. Louis, where the Mississippi River lapped at the steps of the Gateway Arch during the 1993 flood, more than 14,000 acres of flood plain have been developed since 1993. That has reduced the region's ability to store water during future floods, said Adolphus Busch IV, a scion of the Anheuser-Busch brewing family and chairman of the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance. Efforts to protect St. Louis from...

Products based on NASA Earth observations and a new Internet-based decision tool are providing information to help land and water managers combat tamarisk (saltcedar), an invasive plant species damaging precious water supplies in the western United States. This decision tool, called the Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS), is being used at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Institute of Invasive Species Science in Fort Collins, Colo. It is the result of combining USGS science and NASA Earth observations, software engineering and high- performance computing expertise. "The ISFS combines NASA satellite data with tens of thousands of field sampling measurements, which...

MARITIME SECURITY FOR SUPER BOWL XL     Sector DetroitU.S. Coast Guard Press Release Date: January 25, 2006Contact: LT Catherine Mellette(313) 568-9615 MARITIME SECURITY FOR SUPER BOWL XLDETROIT -  The U.S. Coast Guard as the designated lead agency for maritime security during Super Bowl XL has established and will enforce a security zone 1mile by 300 yards along the waterfront from Joe Louis Arena to north of the Renaissance Center (see chart for more details).  Vessels are not allowed to enter the designated security zone.  The word Vessel includes every description of watercraft including; canoes, kayaks, personal watercraft, sailing, power, non-displacement...

Navy Riverines are in demand in Iraq to deny insurgents’ use of rivers as transport routes, avenues of escape The Navy Riverine units to be created this year will face a tough and dangerous task in Iraq, where insurgents increasingly rely on inland waterways to transport people and weapons. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which cut through the Iraqi heartland, also are vital avenues of escape for insurgents who strike in urban areas and slither away to avoid counterattacking American units. The only maritime capability now addressing the river-borne insurgents comprises little more than 100 Marine Corps reservists and fewer...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The first in what is expected to be a series of drenching winter storms has prompted flood warnings and swelled Northern California rivers to their highest levels in seven years. Warnings went into effect across the northern half of the state after the first storm swept through Tuesday and Wednesday. Steady downpours and rising rivers led to an evacuation, scattered power outages, and flooded roads and parks. Water district officials in Sacramento closed a flood gate on the American River as a precaution. "It's been several years since we've had this widespread of flooding, and we're not...

An official Chinese report confirms the Communist nation has managed to foul 70% of its waterways with its "work now-clean up later" policy ; and that this pollution endangers the national food supply. We in the West are inclined to shrug; but consider this: a well-armed,highly militaristic nation, that has been expanding its operations into OUR sphere of influence is potentially a danger to us. Factor in the possibility of large-scale famine in China, and potential danger escalates to a startling degree !

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Fish advocates see the plan to demolish Condit Dam on the White Salmon River as good news for salmon everywhere, but the state Ecology Department says the project could hurt fish downstream and might violate the federal Endangered Species Act. Demolition of the 125-foot-high hydroelectric dam, owned by Portland-based PacifiCorp, is proposed for October 2008. The project would open 33 miles of steelhead habitat and 14 miles of salmon habitat in the area of the river blocked by the dam since 1913. The river forms a portion of the boundary between Klickitat and Skamania counties along the...

Invisible RiversFresh water also flows to sea through the ground Sid Perkins About 2,000 years ago, the Roman geographer Strabo wrote about the residents of Latakia, Syria, who rowed their boats 4 kilometers out into the salty Mediterranean, dove a few meters to the ocean floor, and collected fresh drinking water in goatskin containers for their city. No miracle, this—marine boaters could do the same today at a spot about 10 km east of Jacksonville, Fla. In fact, similar freshwater springs erupt on the seafloor near many shores. These flows of water originate on land and end up in the...

Damage to Coastal Marshes May Mean Lasting Problems For Nation's Vital River. As state and federal officials grapple with massive human toll wrought by one of the most powerful hurricanes to ravage the US coastline, evidence mounted that the storm also damaged the critical Mississippi River shipping corridor south of New Orleans as weell as the remote towns and ecologically sensitive marches that surround it. Photographs and first-hand accounts from helicopter pilots, boat captains and engineers working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicate that the main channel of the river remains intact. But the surrounding nub of land...

Europe's weather crisis eased on Thursday as fires were put out in Portugal and flood waters receded in central Europe, but the death toll rose in Romania and Austria after heavy rains. Since June, the flooding in central and eastern Europe has caused 103 deaths, while fires in drought-stricken Portugal, Spain and France killed 37, according to figures compiled by news agency AFP. Portuguese firefighters said on Thursday they had brought under control all blazes that have ravaged the centre and north of the country over the past two weeks, thanks to the arrival of cooler weather. A villager...

WASHINGTON - The House voted Thursday to approve the nation's costliest waterway navigation project, a $3.6 billion undertaking to ease shipping on the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers. Environmental and taxpayer groups have opposed the project. Barge operators and farmers want to speed grain to Gulf of Mexico ports, and the Mississippi is the cheapest route for shipping to export markets commodities such as corn and soybeans, coal, chemicals and construction materials. Government scientists, however, had said that grain exports probably won't increase enough to economically justify the lock overhaul plan. House members overwhelmingly agreed to the plan anyway, as...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A federal court ruling that rejects the Bush administration's latest effort to balance Columbia Basin salmon recovery against hydroelectric dams has fish conservationists pressing anew for breaching four dams on the lower Snake River. "What the law requires is an honest analysis of how we configure the hydro system so we can get salmon back in our rivers," said Jan Hasselman, attorney for the National Wildlife Federation. "What all the scientists tell us is such an honest analysis would call for breaching the lower four Snake River dams." But with President Bush and the Republican-led Congress...

Fraser River in jeopardy Group puts stream on endangered list, cites big diversions By Jerd Smith, Rocky Mountain News April 13, 2005 Colorado's scenic Fraser River in Grand County has been listed as one of the country's 10 most endangered streams, largely because diversions to the Front Range are threatening its ability to

March 17, 2005Booby-Trapped Rivers Pose Additional Threat   VIDEO   By Grant McOmie  katu.com PORTLAND, Ore. - Fishing guide Phil Hawkins rows fishermen down the Sandy River for a chance to catch a steelhead. He says this winter the unusually low water has meant that he's kept a sharper eye on frothy rapids, exposed rocks and something new. "I have to worry about packing the right rods, the right flies, the right equipment and food - but never, ever would I dream that I'd have to worry about spikes or nails in the river that would tear my boat...

HAIA, Norway (March 1, 2005) -- The depth of the snow near the field training area during Exercise Battle Griffin stands nearly 2 meters. The temperature is a crisp, steady, 12 degrees Fahrenheit - brrrrr!Although the sun is lengthening its daily routine in and around central Norway, dangerous conditions are extreme. Teams have been out testing the snow and electronic transmitters have been issued to all land force participants in case of an avalanche.In these conditions, just getting to the training ranges is a success.The Marines of Marine Air Ground Task Force 25 assembled near the city of Trondheim in...

ust when things were looking up for Iraq's iconic marshlands, another threat has materialised. Iran has begun building a dyke that will threaten the water supply to the healthiest of the wetlands, the Al-Hawizeh marsh. "It will cut off a vast amount of water and remove some of the recovering marshes," says Curtis Richardson of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who is monitoring the recovery. Richardson told New Scientist that maintaining the Al-Hawizeh marsh, which straddles the border between Iran and Iraq, is crucial because it is a refuge for species that may recolonise other marshes. The wetlands, which...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Traffic resumed early Tuesday along a 42-mile stretch of the Ohio River that was closed for nearly two weeks while salvage crews removed three runaway barges that had twisted themselves around a dam. The 175-foot coal barges broke loose on Jan. 6 during flooding along the river and jammed the dam's gates, preventing them from closing. Because of the falling water levels, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers halted river traffic through the Belleview lock on Jan. 19. The closing trapped 46 towboats and more than 550 barges. ``They are moving them pretty briskly right now,''...

PHILADELPHIA - A tanker spilled 30,000 gallons of crude oil into the Delaware River between Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, creating a 20-mile-long slick that killed dozens of birds and threatened other wildlife, federal officials said Saturday. Private contractors were called in to skim oil from the surface of the water and place thousands of feet of boom to contain the floating slick. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said 50 birds were dead from the spill, 300 others were affected and fish also were threatened. A stretch of the busy river was closed to commercial and recreational traffic while...