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? Which river do experts widely believe is the oldest in the United States—and second in age in the world only to the Nile? (!img[Bill Dickinson/Flickr]({_imgurl}01.jpg) /!)
- The Colorado River: Colorado, Utah, Arizona
+ The New River: West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina
- The Rio Grande: Colorado, New Mexico, Texas
- The Des Plaines River: Illinois, Wisconsin
! According to an article in the
Southeastern Geographer titled “The Second Oldest River in the World?” by John T. Morgan and Michael W. Mayfield, West Virginia’s New River is the oldest in the United States,
formed roughly 260 million-325 million years ago.
? How many of the more than 90,000 dams on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ National Inventory of Dams list are classified as high hazard? (!img[Department of Water Resources, California]({_imgurl}02.jpg) /!)
- Less than 1%
- 10%
+ Nearly 17%
- About a third
! The average age of our nation’s dams is 57 years and, by 2025, 7 in 10 will be more than 50 years old, according to the 2017 Infrastructure Report Card published by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Further, according to the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers, of the nearly 91,000 dams throughout the nation, roughly 15,500—or 1 in 6—have “
high hazard potential.”
? Which book by Kevin Fedarko documents an epic, fast ride on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon? (!img[Robert Shea/Flickr]({_imgurl}03.jpg) /!)
- A River Runs Through It
- River of Doubt
+ The Emerald Mile
- The River Why
! In 1983, a team of boaters in a wooden dory ran the flood-swollen Colorado River, which was at record high levels, in 36 hours and 38 minutes—
a record that still stands today. Fedarko’s 2014 book,
The Emerald Mile, chronicles the run.
? Which character on the television series “The West Wing,” when asked who passed the Clean Water Act, answered, “My water’s clean; I don’t ask questions.” (!img[Plum Pine/Flickr]({_imgurl}04.jpg) /!)
- President Jed Bartlet
- Donna Moss
+ Leo McGarry
- Josh Lyman
! In
Season 3, Episode 8, “The Women of Qumar,” White House aide Charlie Young is studying for a history test, and President Bartlet offers to help. When Bartlet is stumped by the question about who passed the Clean Water Act, he asks his chief of staff, Leo McGarry, who responds, “My water’s clean; I don’t ask questions.”
? Kenneth Roberts’ novel
Arundel chronicles the harrowing tale of Benedict Arnold’s 1775 Quebec Expedition, which ascended a river in leaky wooden boats. In 1999, this same river was the scene of the momentous removal of the decrepit Edwards Dam. Which river is this? (!img[Flickr Creative Commons]({_imgurl}05.jpg) /!)
- Connecticut River
+ Kennebec River
- Chaudière River
- Penobscot River
! Although it was built well after the Quebec Expedition, the
Edwards Dam interrupted the Kennebec River for 162 years, cutting off migrating fish populations from inland Maine to the Atlantic Ocean, and greatly degrading the river’s health. Its destruction—sometimes called the birth of the modern dam-removal movement—marked the first time that the U.S. government ordered such a move solely for the purpose of restoring fisheries and river health.
? In 1969, a U.S. river caught fire, helping to ignite the modern conservation movement, which in turn blazed the way for the first Earth Day, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, and bedrock environmental laws such as the Clean Water Act. Which river was it? (!img[D.J. Reiser/National Park Service]({_imgurl}06.jpg) /!)
+ Cuyahoga River, Ohio
- Mississippi River, Louisiana
- Elk River, West Virginia
- Chicago River, Illinois
! On a June Sunday in 1969, an oil slick on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio,
caught fire, which wasn’t even the first time that flames had leaped from this badly polluted waterway. However, following this
particular fire, a cover story in
Time magazine and a subsequent 1970
National Geographic feature, “Our Ecological Crisis,” alerted a generation of Americans to the urgent need for environmental regulations.
? On which U.S. river was the world record set for the largest striped bass ever caught with fly fishing gear—64 pounds, 8 ounces? (!img[Greg Shine/BLM]({_imgurl}07.jpg) /!)
- American River, California
+ Smith River, Oregon
- Sacramento River, California
- Susquehanna River, Maryland
! In 1973, Beryl Bliss from Fallon, Nevada,
caught the monster striped bass in the Smith River near Oregon’s Central Coast. Decades later, the Smith is still prized by anglers for its cutthroat and steelhead trout, and is a key driver in the regional tourism economy.
