Two rivers in West Virginia are among the 10 most endangered in the country, according to a report by American Rivers, a Washington D.C.-based organization working to protect and restore the nation’s rivers and streams.

The Potomac River, whose headwaters reside in West Virginia, is first on American’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2012 list and southern West Virginia’s Coal River is ranked ninth.

According to the report, the Potomac River has become much cleaner since the Clean Water Act of 1972 but it is still threatened by agricultural and urban pollution as well as the possibility of Congress considering cuts the nation’s clean water protection.

Currently the Potomac provides drinking water for more than five million people.

“This year’s Most Endangered Rivers list underscores how important clean water is to our drinking water, health, and economy,” said Bob Irvin, President of American Rivers. “If Congress slashes clean water protections, more Americans will get sick and communities and businesses will suffer. We simply cannot afford to go back to a time when the Potomac and rivers nationwide were too polluted and dangerous to use.”

Like the Potomac, the Coal River provides drinking water for local communities and supports fish and wildlife.

The report finds that mountaintop removal mining poses a threat to the Coal River and the health of the surrounding communities.

According to the report, some of Appalachia’s largest strip mines are in the Coal River basin. About 20 percent of the Coal River’s watershed is permitted for coal mining and one-third of that has already been mined.

Matthew Louis-Rosenberg of Coal River Mountain Watch called the contamination a “public health crisis” and elevated rates of cancer, birth defects and other illnesses exist in areas with extensive mountaintop removal mining.

Cindy Rank, spokesperson with the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, commented, “In the last couple of years, much positive attention has been given and energy expended to entice local involvement and enjoyment of the lower reaches of the Coal River in Kanawha County, and yet the smaller headwater streams miles upriver continue to be polluted.”

She explained that protecting the health of the river is directly related to the health of the people who live along the river.

Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition project director Vivian Stockman added that only  5 to 10 percent of that coal burned for electricity is mined by mountaintop and its wastes are extremely destructive to waterways.

American Rivers hopes Congress will kill legislation that plans to weaken the Clean Water Act or prevent the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from restoring protections for small streams and wetlands under the Act.

The Coal River is West Virginia’s second longest river and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

It was also named one of American’s Most Endangered Rivers by American Rivers in 1999 and 2000.

Other endangered rivers include the Green, Chattahoochee, Missouri, Hoback, Grand, South Fork Skyhomish, Crystal, and Kansas rivers.

For more information on American Rivers, visit www.americanrivers.org.

— E-mail: splummer@register-herald.com