WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Justice Stephen Breyer Friday refused an environmental coalition's request to help save the endangered silvery minnow.
The group told the Supreme Court of the United States in an emergency application the minnow will die off this weekend or next week unless authorities stop releasing water from the Rio Grande in New Mexico.
Breyer oversees the 10th U.S. Circuit, which includes New Mexico, so the coalition's request was automatically routed to him.
The justice could have referred the matter to the full court for a vote, but denied the request on his own without comment.
The coalition still could ask another justice to refer the request for a full vote, but the Supreme Court rarely reverses the actions of a justice who oversees a geographical circuit.
The "Rio Grande Silver Minnow," or the silvery minnow, was one of the most abundant fishes in the Rio Grande basin before the construction of dams and diversion structures.
At present it is only found in parts of a 176-mile stretch of the Rio Grande, and was placed on the endangered list in 1994. Four other minnow species in the area, which also required flowing water for survival, have already become extinct.
However, the Bureau of Reclamation, which has supervision over the dams, became aware early this year of the possibility of extreme drought conditions in the area.
The BOR continued to release water from upstream reservoirs on a contracted schedule to help farmers, ranchers and communities in the area.
The coalition successfully asked a federal judge for an injunction against the releases, but a divided federal appeals court stayed the judge's order.
The environmentalists then turned to the Supreme Court.
"Extinction of the silvery minnow will likely result from drying of its last remaining habitat in the Rio Grande in New Mexico," the coalition said in its application to the Supreme Court. "This large-scale drying will result from (an appeals court order) staying a preliminary injunction" issued last month by the federal judge.
With the preliminary injunction lifted, the federal government "is expected to terminate its leases of reservoir water for the silvery minnow sometime this weekend, which in turn will result in the drying of the river and the death of almost the last remaining silvery minnows a few days later ...."
The coalition said the appeals court stay order is the first time that a federal court "has usurped the authority given by Congress to only the Endangered Species Committee (known informally as the 'God Squad') and unilaterally allowed federal actions to proceed even though they have been expressly found by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to jeopardize the continued existence of a federally listed endangered species."
Besides the BOR, other organizations listed as defendants in the environmentalists' suit included the Army Corps of Engineers, the Interior Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The state of New Mexico and the city of Albuquerque entered the case as defendants-interveners.
(Application No. 320, Rio Grande Silvery Minnow et al vs. BOR Commission Keys et al)
