Nevada lithium mine will destroy rare plant habitat that US considers critical to its survival, lawsuit says

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Conservationists and a Native American tribe are suing the U.S. in an attempt to block a lithium mine in Nevada that they say would lead to the extinction of an endangered desert wildflower, disrupt groundwater flows and endanger cultural resources.

The Center for Biological Diversity promised legal action a week ago when The US Department of the Interior has approved Ioneer Ltd.’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron mine. is located in the only place in the world where Tim’s buckwheat is known to exist, near the California line halfway between Reno and Las Vegas.

It’s the latest in a series of lawsuits over projects President Joe Biden’s administration is pushing forward under its leadership. clean energy agenda intends to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, in part by increasing production of lithium to make batteries for electric vehicles and solar panels.

The new lawsuit says that Permission from the Ministry of Internal Affairs for a mine marks a dramatic turn US wildlife experts who warned Almost two years ago, Tim’s buckwheat was “on the brink of extinction” when it was listed as an endangered species in December 2022.

“It is impossible to save the planet from climate change while destroying biodiversity,” said Fermina Stevens, director of the Western Shoshone Defense Project, who joined the center in the lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Reno.

“The use of mineral resources, whether for electric vehicles or solar panels, does not justify such disregard for Indigenous cultural territories and key environmental laws,” said John Hadder, director of Great Basin Resource Watch, another co-plaintiff.

Rita Henderson, a spokeswoman for the Interior Bureau of Land Management in Reno, said Friday the agency had no immediate comment.

Ioneer Vice President Chad Yeftich said the Australian mining company intends to intervene on behalf of the US and “vigorously defend” the project’s approval, “which was based on a thorough and thorough permitting process.”

“We are confident that BLM will win,” Eftich said. He added that he does not expect the lawsuit to delay plans to begin construction next year.

The lawsuit says the mine would damage sacred sites of the Western Shoshone. This includes Cave Spring, a natural spring located less than a mile away that is described as “a place where cultural and spiritual knowledge is passed on from generation to generation.”

But the focus is on alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act. It details the Fish and Wildlife Service’s move away from the grim picture it previously painted of threats to a 6-inch-tall (15 cm) wildflower with cream or yellow flowers bordering an open-pit mine. as deep as the length of a football field.

The mine permit assumes that up to one-fifth of the nearly 1.5 square miles (3.6 square kilometers) the agency has designated as critical habitat surrounding plants (home to a variety of pollinators important to their survival) will be lost to decades, and some forever.

Proposing to protect 910 acres (368 ha) critical habitatThe service said “this device is essential to the conservation and restoration of Tim’s buckwheat.” The agency formalized that status when it listed the plant in December 2022, rejecting the alternative to less restrictive endangered status.

“We believe that endangered status is inappropriate because the threats are serious and imminent, and Tim’s buckwheat is endangered now and is not likely to become endangered in the future,” the agency concluded.

The lawsuit also reveals for the first time that the plant’s population, numbering fewer than 30,000 according to the latest government estimate, has suffered additional losses since August that were not included in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s biological report.

The damage is similar to what the bureau concluded was caused rodents eat plants The lawsuit says the 2020 incident caused the population to decline by 60%.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said in its August biological opinion that while the project “will result in long-term disturbance (approximately 23 years) of 146 acres (59 hectares) of the plant community… and permanent loss of 45 acres (18 hectares), we do not expect that adverse impacts would significantly reduce the value of critical habitat as a whole.”