Utilizing the Endangered Species Act to protect desert fishes: 3 cases

Authors: Patrick Donnelly

Year: 2019

Abstract

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) has been a critical tool to protect desert fishes since its passage in 1973, providing badly needed protections not only for fishes’ habitats but also for the water sources those habitats rely on. The threats to desert fishes from habitat degradation and groundwater overdraft persist, and the Center for Biological Diversity is currently using the ESA to pursue protections for numerous species. Three will be highlighted here. The Moapa dace, Moapa coriacea, is threatened by groundwater overdraft in the Upper Muddy River spring complex in Clark County, Nevada. A complex legal battle over water use in the area which has played out administratively and in the courts for decades may be coming to a denouement. Unlike the Devils Hole pupfish, the dace does not have senior water rights, so this is a test case for the power of the ESA to protect these species on its own. The White River springfish, Crenichthys baileyi baileyi, is threatened with overuse by bathers in the thermal spring in Lincoln County, Nevada that it calls home. The protections it has under the Endangered Species Act should guard against this sort of degradation of its habitat. Finally, the Amargosa Canyon population of Nevada speckled dace, Rhinichthys osculus nevadensis, in Inyo and San Bernardino Counties, California, is threatened by groundwater overdraft in the regional carbonate aquifer which feeds the springs that form its habitat. Distinct Population Segment (DPS) status under the Endangered Species Act will be sought to protect the water that this species relies upon. Each case poses significant questions about the reach and power of the ESA to protect desert fishes, and in each case, the fate of a species may hang in the balance.