RENO, Nev.— In response to a petition and litigation from the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed protecting the Fish Lake Valley tui chub under the Endangered Species Act.

The rare fish is threatened with extinction because of rapid groundwater drawdown from pumping for agriculture, particularly alfalfa for feeding livestock. Other threats include proposed lithium mining and geothermal energy projects, and invasive species.

“The Fish Lake Valley tui chub is barely clinging to existence. I’m thrilled these fish are poised to get the life-saving protections they urgently need,” said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Nevada has already lost so many native fish species. We can’t afford any more extinction.”

The Fish Lake Valley tui chub is a subspecies of the wider distributed Lahontan tui chub. The fish live in a single spring within their native range and in a pond outside the native range where they were introduced.

Pumping for agriculture in Fish Lake Valley vastly exceeds the natural recharge to the aquifer, resulting in plummeting groundwater levels across the valley. Tui chubs used to live in a half dozen springs, all but one of which dried up due to the aquifer collapse. Flow at the one remaining spring has been documented to have declined by more than 50%.

Looming mining and energy projects threaten to worsen the problems in the aquifer. The Fish and Wildlife Service specifically cited threats from the proposed Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine as a reason for protecting the tui chub. The Center has sued to stop the mine from moving forward because it poses severe threats to biodiversity and cultural resources.

“The Rhyolite Ridge Mine could be called the Extinction Mine because it’s sending one species after another onto the Endangered Species list,” said Donnelly. “The Fish Lake Valley tui chub is staring down the barrel of extinction, and only the Endangered Species Act can save it now. We’re going to keep fighting to save it and the remarkable biodiversity of Fish Lake Valley.”