Endangered status sought for snail near Nevada lithium mine

[Elderberry]

ABC News by SCOTT SONNER 9/12/2022

Conservationists are seeking Endangered Species Act protection for a tiny Nevada snail half the size of a pea that is known to exist only in high-desert springs around a huge lithium mine planned near the Oregon state line

RENO, Nev. -- Conservationists are seeking Endangered Species Act protection for a tiny snail half the size of a pea that is known to exist only in high-desert springs near a huge lithium mine planned in Nevada along the Oregon state line.

The Western Watersheds Project filed the listing petition last week with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the Kings River pyrg, a springsnail found in 13 isolated springs around Thacker Pass 200 miles (321 kilometers) northeast of Reno.

It says the biggest threat to the snail’s survival is disruption of groundwater flows as a result of the 370-foot-deep (113-meter), open-pit mine that the Bureau of Land Management approved last year and is currently being challenged in U.S. District Court in Reno.

Other threats to the snail's survival include livestock grazing, road construction and climate change, the petition said.

“Federal land managers put this aquatic snail in the crosshairs of extinction by hastily approving large-scale lithium mining at Thacker Pass,” said Erik Molvar, executive director of the Idaho-based group.

Ramped-up domestic production of lithium is key to President Joe Biden’s blueprint for a greener future, a critical element for electric vehicle batteries. Worldwide demand for lithium is projected to increase six-fold by 2030 compared with 2020.

More: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/endangered-status-sought-snail-nevada-lithium-mine-89786520

[catfish1957]

Regulatory largess has been killing our economy for decades.  I've dealt with it first hand.

There is now a warm glowing sense of Schendenfruede though.  Where the envirowhackos are now cancelling each other out now.

[GtHawk]

Wow, such a loss! Exactly what do they contribute to the ecosystem, what above or below them is dependent on their survival? Why can't they be raised in aquariums and returned to these springs, if disrupted, at a later date? The ecoterrorists always seem to find something to derail man, Delta Smelt, Kangaroo rat, spotted owl, Braken Bat Cave Meshweaver spider, to name just a few and that's not even starting on plants.

[DefiantMassRINO]

Chilean lithium miners in the Atacama Desert don't conern themselves about snails, or any other environmental issues.

Just another reminder that America won't be allowed to compete in the Global economy by its own elites.