Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#65
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SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#65
4/10/97
SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
silver city,
tucson, phoenix, san
diego
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TWO
SUITS FILED AGAINST ROOSEVELT DAM- TAKE OF 90
FLYCATCHERS
CHALLENGED
In early 1996, the Southwest Center filed suit
against the Bureau of
Reclamation for failing to prepare a supplemental
E.I.S. analyzing the
effects of enlarging the Roosevelt Dam, thereby flooding
out
Arizona's largest population of Southwestern willow flycatchers.
The
suit was stayed while the Bureau prepared an Environmental
Assessment
to determine if an E.I.S. is necessary. Amazingly, the
Bureau decided an
E.I.S. would not be necessary since the take of 90
flycatchers, 20% of the
entire subspecies, is not a significant impact.
The stay was lifted on March
31, 1997, allowing the Center to
challenge the no significant impact
finding.
While the Bureau found no significant impact, the U.S. Fish
and
Wildlife Service determined in a Biological Opinion that
the
enlargement of the dam will jeopardize the existence of the
endangered
flycatcher. Rather than require changes in dam
management, however, the
Service permitted 100% take of all
flycatchers. The loss of 20% of the
subspecies is supposed to be
mitigated by the purchase of riparian habitat
with only one pair of
flycatchers on it, over 50 miles away. The mitigation
site was
previously rejected by Arizona Game and Fish because
of
contamination by PCBs. On March 31, 1997, a federal judge granted
the
Center 's motion to amend the original suit against BuRec to
include a suit
against the Fish and Wildlife Service, claiming that the
offsite mitigation
does not remove jeopardy.
The Bureau of Reclamation's first dam,
Roosevelt was built in 1911
at the confluence of the Salt River and Tonto
Creek. It provides water
to the Phoenix metro area and valley agribusiness.
In 1984, following
failed bids to build new dams in the Gila River Basin, the
Bureau
decided to increase the height of Roosevelt Dam by 60 feet. In
1990,
it decided to raise it an additional 17 feet. While BuRec asserts
that
the flycatcher must go because more water is needed, there is
actually
a water glut. Cities in the Phoenix metro area are selling off
their
water ranches.
The Southwest Center has proposed that the
reservoir not be filled
until the supposed mitigation acres actually support
45 pairs of
flycatchers. Both suits are being argued by Geoff Hickcox of
Kenna
and Associates.
Kieran
Suckling
ksuckling@sw-center.org
Executive
Director
520.733.1391 phone
Southwest Center for Biological
Diversity 520.733.1404 fax
http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/sw-center
pob 17839, tucson, az 85731