WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Rio Grande Needs Peak Flows to Survive

Suit Threatened to Stop Agency from Impeding Progress
Contact: Jennifer Pelz 303-884-2702

Albuquerque, New Mexico – In an effort to restore peak-flow events that are essential for survival of plant and animal communities in the middle Rio Grande, WildEarth Guardians today warned the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that the agency’s refusal to alter its reservoir operations violates the Endangered Species Act.

“The Rio Grande is on life support after a decade of failed leadership and broken promises” said Jen Pelz, Wild Rivers Program Director at WildEarth Guardians. “The Corps continues to point fingers instead of stepping up and presenting creative ways to utilize their own authorities as part of the solution.”

On November 26, 2013, the Corps withdrew from legally mandated discussions with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service aimed at crafting a long-term plan for protecting the imperiled species in the middle Rio Grande including the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow and Southwestern willow flycatcher. Guardians put the Corps on notice that if it does not reopen talks with the Service and comply with the Endangered Species Act, the group will file suit in federal court to compel the Corps to do so.

The group’s notice details numerous violations of the Act and emphasizes that the Corps not only has the ability to modify its normal reservoir operations to provide a spring peak-flow in the river, but also that it demonstrated such operational authority from 2000-2003, and in 2007 and 2010. In fact, the utilization of this type of authority to benefit endangered species is exactly why the Endangered Species Act requires the Corps to enter into discussions with the Service.

“The Corps refusal to operate Cochiti dam in a manner that does not impact water users, but would significantly aid in the recovery of endangered species is irresponsible” Pelz said. “Guardians will not sit on our hands while the Corps plays politics with the survival of the iconic Rio Grande and its river-dependent species.”

The Corps refusal to continue its discussions with the Service also threatens to derail the new water management and species recovery plan for the middle Rio Grande currently being negotiated between the Service and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, the State of New Mexico and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, among others. The Service planned to release its new guidance by the start of the 2014 irrigation season on March 1, but it appears that Service’s decision will be delayed indefinitely until the Corps’ withdrawal is resolved.

Guardians felt compelled to invoke the citizen suit provision of the Endangered Species Act today to enforce the only law that protects flows in the Rio Grande. Guardians notice gives the Corps sixty days to remedy its violations of the Endangered Species Act or face a lawsuit.