WildEarth Guardians v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

The federal district court for the District of New Mexico approved a settlement agreement between WildEarth Guardians, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) that resolved WildEarth Guardians’ lawsuit that challenged the 2016 biological opinion regarding the effects of Reclamation’s Middle Rio Grande water operations on species protected under the Endangered Species Act and their critical habitat. The complaint’s allegations included that the biological opinion failed to consider climate change impacts and that consultation under the Endangered Species Act should be reinitiated to consider new information on climate change impacts. The settlement agreement requires that consultation be reinitiated within 30 days and that a new biological opinion be issued by October 30, 2028. The agreement also requires implementation of interim measures to protect species. The federal defendants agreed to pay WildEarth Guardians $41,000 for attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses.

WildEarth Guardians filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of New Mexico challenging the 2016 biological opinion issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) regarding the effects of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s (Reclamation’s) Middle Rio Grande water operations on species listed under the Endangered Species Act and their critical habitat. WildEarth Guardians’ claims include that the FWS failed to consider “the additive climate impacts to the impacts of Reclamation’s water operations,” which include surface water diversions for irrigated lands. The complaint alleged that “[c]limate change over the remainder of the century will significantly alter availability of flows in the Rio Grande Basin” and that the FWS failed to assess how “climate-induced stream changes will affect the efficacy of the proposed conservation measures the [FWS] relies on” to reach its conclusion that Reclamation’s operations would not jeopardize listed species such as the Rio Grande silvery minnow or destroy or adversely modify the species’ critical habitat. In addition, WildEarth Guardians alleged that the FWS and Reclamation must reinitiate consultation under the Endangered Species Act to address significant new information, including information on climate change impacts.