By AP/KWMU
Washington – The U.S. interior department says the new plan for managing the Missouri River doesn't meet requirements of the Endangered Species Act.
The Fish and Wildlife Service must sign off on river operations. The department is working with the Corps of Engineers to put the new plan in place.
The Corps says it will not create a more seasonal ebb and flow to sustain fish and birds, as the wildlife service ordered.
Instead the corps will allow barge shipping, which the ebb and flow would have halted.
The corps says it will comply with the Endangered Species Act by building habitat for an endangered fish.
But an interior department official says the plan falls short of the goal for protecting the fish.