The Department of Justice asked U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler to stay an injunction she granted that requires a more natural flow along the Missouri to protect endangered birds and fish.

Her ruling, issued Saturday, conflicts with a ruling in 2002 from the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska that requires the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to keep enough water in the lower Missouri to allow for barge navigation, power generation and other needs.

"The corps cannot comply with both of these orders, and as a result, may be subject to contempt proceedings," Justice Department spokesman Blain Rethmeier said Monday.

The corps reduced flows slightly on Saturday after Kessler, a judge from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, granted the injunction. Depending on whether a stay is granted, agency officials will decide Tuesday whether to reduce the Missouri's depth - by about 6 feet at Kansas City, Mo., for example - to comply with the judge's order.

Kessler said in her ruling on Saturday that injury to wildlife - the least tern, piping plover and pallid sturgeon - will be irreparable without curtailing the Missouri's flow.

American Rivers, Environmental Defense, the Isaac Walton League, the National Wildlife Federation and a half-dozen other groups are suing to force the changes in river flow, which they contend are required by the federal Endangered Species Act.

"This ruling will prevent the Corps from wasting valuable water in a drought to float the mere four towboats actually using the river right now," said Tim Searchinger, an attorney for Environmental Defense. Each boat pulls several barges, each of which can carry dozens of containers.

The lower reaches of the river through Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska will be too shallow for barge tows if flows are reduced to levels sought by conservation groups, critics said.

"The reliability of the river for barge transportation has been adversely affected over the last few years, and this particular ruling just adds insult to injury," Randy Asbury, who heads the Missouri-based Coalition to Protect the Missouri River, said Monday.

Lower Missouri states say the more natural flow sought by environmentalists, who also are demanding a spring rise in water levels every third summer to mimic runoff from melting mountain snow, will flood homes and farmland and devastate the barge shipping industry.

It would take about two weeks for water reductions made at the Gavins Point Dam on the border between South Dakota and Nebraska to reach Kansas City, where the Missouri's depth would drop from 14 feet to 8 feet.

A barge loaded with 134 truckloads of grain was waiting in Omaha Monday for a towboat to bring it down the Missouri, corps spokesman Paul Johnston said. The nearest towboat was in Kansas City and can't make the trip if levels drop, he said.

In her ruling issued Saturday, Kessler acknowledged barge companies will lose revenues, water quality may suffer and consumers may pay more for power this summer along the Missouri River.

But Kessler said benefits of lower flows outweigh the costs.

"There is no dollar value that can be placed on the extinction of an animal species - the loss is to our planet, our children and future generations," Kessler wrote.

Kessler said conservationists probably will win the lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers because the corps was ordered in 2000 to switch to a more natural flow, with heavier water releases every third spring and lighter flows each summer.

The order came from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which said in its biological opinion that only by implementing the changes can the piping plover, interior least tern and pallid sturgeon be protected. The animals are on the federal list of endangered or threatened species.

The Bush administration indefinitely postponed the changes to the river mandated by the order by initiating talks between the corps and the wildlife service. The service agreed this year to allow higher flows for this summer only, but the judge called that decision baseless.

"The public interest is served when the legislation that Congress has enacted is complied with, and federal agencies fulfill their congressional mandates," Kessler wrote.

ON THE NET

Army Corps of Engineers Missouri River Region: http://www.nwd.usace.army.mil/

American Rivers: http://www.americanrivers.org

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia: http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/