WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity today sued the Trump administration for denying protections to the brook floater mussel under the Endangered Species Act.

The mussels were once widespread across the East Coast from Canada to Georgia, but because of pollution and habitat destruction they’re now limited to a small number of scattered streams and are completely gone from Rhode Island, Delaware and the District of Columbia. The brook floater was denied protection in 2019 — one of many species wrongly denied during the first Trump administration.

“Brook floater mussels work tirelessly day after day to clean the waters that we all rely on but they desperately need endangered species protections,” said Tierra Curry, senior scientist and endangered species codirector at the Center. “We’re still fixing the damage from the first Trump administration and these mussels should’ve never been denied protections in the first place.”

The Center has successfully sued over a number of species similarly denied protections including wolverines, eastern hellbenders and Kirtland’s snakes.

The Center petitioned for protection of the mussel in 2010. The species is threatened by dams, water pollution, oil and gas drilling, logging, mining and climate change.

“We absolutely must do more to protect rivers and streams and protecting the brook floater is a good place to start,” said Curry. “Trump has shown time and again how little he cares about imperiled plants and animals, but we won’t let them slide quietly into extinction.”