On Earth Day, water policy floods the ecodebate

As thousands of Americans observe Earth Day today by cleaning beaches and restoring streams, water connects just about every major environmental challenge the country faces.

From once-pristine Lake Tahoe to the dammed and dredged Missouri River to hog-waste fish kills in the tidewater states to the drought-parched Northeast, water has become, as EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman puts it, the "biggest environmental issue that we face for the 21st century."

Mark Twain's witty adage about 19th-century development in the West Â- "whiskey's for drinking and water's for fighting" Â- reflects today's battles over control and cost. Among these:

• The EPA says the nation is billions of dollars behind in the necessary upgrades to sewer and water systems.

• Communities argue over the new federal arsenic limits in drinking water.

• The Bush administration wants to make it easier for coal miners to slice off mountaintops, which critics say causes erosion that pollutes streams.

• The old debate over who should pay for the cleanup of water-fouling toxic "Superfund" sites Â- taxpayers or polluters Â- continues to rage in Washington.

• In Oregon's Klamath Basin, the administration is seeking to avoid the kind of fish vs. farmers vs. Indians battle that raged last summer.

BUT perhaps the most monumental water battles are with the US Army Corps of Engineers, the most powerful Â- and controversial Â- government agency impacting water. With the recent designation of this year's "most endangered rivers" by a conservation group, the Army Corps is working to improve its policies, as congressional critics bear down on this massive dam-building bureaucracy.

The Army Corps is a favorite of Congress for the things it builds and maintains to provide irrigation, power generation, flood control, recreational opportunities, and other projects boosting economies and lawmakers' standing with powerful constituents.

But budget hawks call many of the projects little more than congressional boondoggles; conservationists say the corps has helped destroy wetlands and other important ecosystem elements. Earlier this month, the conservation group American Rivers released its "Most Endangered Rivers" report. The Missouri topped the list, with its health "in sharp decline due to the operation of corps dams and reservoirs."

There are signs that the corps is getting the message. Last month, Lt. Gen. Robert Flowers, commander and chief engineer of the corps (on the job just 18 months), announced seven "Environmental Operating Principles." General Flowers pledges to "proactively consider environmental consequences of corps programs and act accordingly in all appropriate circumstances." Noting that the science of watershed preservation and management has advanced recently, he says, "We've learned the hard way that those environmental costs must be recognized and dealt with." Some 20 percent of the corps' budget now goes to environmental restoration.

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