Kemp pointed to a 2020 study published in the online journal Nature Sustainability, and cited by the U.S. The agency cited groundwater pumping for agricultural and municipal uses as a contributing factor to the loss of Gila chub.
USFWS said when it listed the San Pedro Gila chub in 2005 that it was one of only two native fish species remaining in the San Pedro River, which historically supported at least 13. Western fish that are already listed under the Endangered Species Act and face increasing threats from drought include Chinook salmon in California’s Central Valley, the Rio Grande silvery minnow in New Mexico and the San Pedro Gila chub in southern Arizona. The frequency and intensity of drought is expected to continue to increase and snowpack decrease 30-50% by 2100 in most basins, according to a 2020 state climate study. The petition said climate change is contributing to threats to water supplies across the West that support fish like the one in Nevada.Īverage temperatures are rising and eight of Nevada's 10 warmest years since 1895 have occurred since 2000. an Endangered Species Act kind of thing,” he said. “It's a lot easier to work through a state process that deals with the laws of water rights vs. “This isn’t the first petition we’ve been through and won’t be the last."īusselman said federal involvement often is counter-productive because regulatory responses can take years. The petition should serve as “notice for people to become aware and study it and try to find out what can be done about the underlying problems," he said. “In the years I've been down there, I have been hearing different accounts from domestic-well owners who are concerned because they have to dig deeper wells," Busselman said Wednesday. But they've long been concerned water is over-appropriated there - which means, at least on paper, rights have been granted to more water than actually exists. Nevada Farm Bureau Executive Vice President Doug Busselman said most local farmers and ranchers probably haven't heard of the tui chub. “This overdraft is resulting in a collapse of aquifer storage,” Reno-based Farr West Engineering said then. The consultant Esmeralda County hired to develop its water resource plan in 2012 warned the Fish Lake Valley basin "is experiencing irreparable damage from water production that exceeds annual recharge.” Lake Valley's groundwater levels have declined as much as 2.5 feet (76 centimeters) per year over the past half-century, causing a cumulative drawdown of more than 75 feet (23 meters) since 1973, the petition said. A full-blown review of its status is due next August.
Threats to the fish include effects from agriculture, encroachment of aquatic plants, geothermal energy, lithium mining and climate change, it said. “The petition presents substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that listing the Fish Lake Valley tui chub as an endangered or threatened species may be warranted," the finding published in Tuesday's Federal Register said. Fish and Wildlife Service announced its positive 90-day finding this week.
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