Endangered status sought for snail near Nevada lithium mine
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. (AP) — 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.
