Development continues to threaten New River

People have lived along the New River for at least 10,000 years. That's like a long weekend for a river that was flowing long before there were people or mountains on its banks.

Drinking water, water for crops and livestock, power for factories, fish for food and sport, tourism dollars -- people have drawn all these from this river that winds 320 miles through 21 counties in three states.

The New River is famous for sport fishing, rafting, canoeing and tubing. But for a few miles in West Virginia, it's little more than a trickle as most of the river is diverted through a power plant. Some of the largest polluters in Virginia sit on its banks. The Virginia Department of Health advises people to avoid eating some species of fish caught in the river and to limit consumption of others.

But the greatest threat to the river isn't congressional inaction or industrial waste or threats to build dams or prisons or power plants, according to George Santucci, leader of the National Committee for the New River.

"The one constant pressure, which is probably the hardest one to figure out how to deal with, is just general development," Santucci said.

And the most significant change that could alter the river's environment is houses.