A conservation group says a new legal agreement will force the federal government to decide by September 13, 2028, whether to protect a rare desert wildflower under the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after the agency delayed a final decision on the Tecopa bird's beak, which grows in desert wetlands along the Nevada-California border in Esmeralda County.
The flower's habitat in Fish Lake Valley near Dyer, Nevada, and Oasis, California, relies on groundwater that has been pumped for decades to irrigate alfalfa fields. The Center argues that a proposed lithium mine at Rhyolite Ridge in the nearby mountains would accelerate the depletion of that water, threatening the wildflower along with Tiehm's buckwheat and the Fish Lake Valley tui chub.
"I'm thrilled the Tecopa bird's beak is closer to getting the protections it so urgently needs," said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center. "Nevada's unsustainable groundwater pumping threatens to annihilate the desert wetlands where these wildflowers live. If we want to save them from extinction we have to act now." Donnelly has referred to the Rhyolite Ridge project as "the extinction mine."
Australia-based Ioneer Ltd., the developer of the Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron mine, says studies show the mine site draws from a different aquifer and would not further strain Fish Lake Valley. The company states it has purchased water rights previously used by farmers and has invested more than $220 million in the project. In July, Ioneer reached a nonbinding agreement with the South Korean government and Hyundai Engineering that could speed up production plans.
Lithium from the mine would supply batteries for electric vehicles. The only currently operating U.S. lithium mine is at Silver Peak, which uses a brine extraction method requiring far more water than the hard-rock mining and on-site processing proposed at Rhyolite Ridge. The Center for Biological Diversity is challenging the mine in court, arguing it would introduce new pumping nearby and worsen conditions for the wetland species.
Sources: 8 News Now
Original reporting: 8 News Now →
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