US wildlife service considering endangered status for tiny snail near Nevada lithium mine
abcnews.go.comFederal wildlife officials have agreed to conduct a year-long review to determine whether a tiny snail found only in high-desert springs near a huge lithium mine being built along the Nevada-Oregon line should be listed as a threatened or endangered sp...
RENO, Nev. — Federal wildlife officials have agreed to conduct a full, year-long review to determine whether a tiny snail found only in high-desert springs near a huge lithium mine being built along the Nevada-Oregon line should be listed as a threatened or endangered species.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a finding published Thursday in the Federal Register that enough scientific exists to warrant the review sought by environmentalists who say that groundwater pumping required for the operation of the Thacker Pass mine could push the Kings River pyrg to the brink of extinction.
However, the agency said in the new finding it «does not anticipate the species is immediately at risk.”
The Western Watersheds Project argued in its formal petition for the listing in September 2022 that the tiny snail no bigger than the tip of a ball-point pen was imperiled even before any new mining was contemplated due to livestock grazing, round-building and the anticipated impacts of climate change.
Ramped-up domestic production of lithium is a key part of President Joe Biden's blueprint for a greener future less dependent on fossil fuels. Worldwide demand for the critical element in the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries is projected to increase six-fold by 2030 compared with 2020.
Last October, the Idaho-based group sent the Interior Department agency a formal notice of its intent to sue unless it expedited the review under the Endangered Species Act.
“Without ESA
Read more on abcnews.go.com
