Associated Press
PHOENIX — A major Arizona waterway has landed on the annual list of the country's most endangered rivers.
The 649-mile Gila River flows out of New Mexico to the Colorado River near Yuma. It's the third Arizona river in five years that made the endangered list of American Rivers, a national conservation advocacy group.
The Colorado was named the nation's most endangered river in 2004, and the Verde claimed a spot in 2006.
American Rivers, which released this year's list Thursday, said a proposed water-diversion project on the upper Gila "could deplete a desert oasis" and stick taxpayers with an unnecessary debt with few benefits.
Although there have been many proposals to build a dam and divert more water from the upper Gila and its tributary, the San Francisco River, the threat grew more real in 2004 when Congress approved the Arizona Water Settlements Act.
The measure settled claims with several Indian tribes and affirmed New Mexico's right to take about 14,000 acre-feet of water from the Gila and San Francisco.
Although New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said that no dam would be built on the Gila as long as he was in office, activists still fear what might happen under another administration.
The upper Gila still flows freely, and cottonwood and sycamore riparian areas are thriving. The area harbors a mostly intact native-fish population, a rarity in the Southwest.
"There are wonderfully pristine areas," said Allyson Siwik, executive director of the Gila Conservation Coalition in Silver City, N.M., not far from the river's headwaters. "There are no dams, no reservoirs ... It is pretty phenomenal."
Some water managers say New Mexico needs to claim its share of the river rather than allow it to flow into Arizona.
Siwik said cheaper alternatives could provide water to New Mexico without damaging the river.
"The pieces are all here," said Todd Schulke, who works on the issue for the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity. "It's more intact than most rivers in the Southwest. This is one of those rare situations where leaving the river alone will allow it to return to its natural state."
One stretch of the river in eastern Arizona is protected as the Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area, but the river begins to dry up as it crosses Arizona. Little water flows below Coolidge Dam, southeast of Globe, and the riverbed turns to dust for long stretches.
The river hasn't reached the Colorado on its own in decades.
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