Rare fish left off river list

Tuesday, June 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Federal biologists reviewing endangered or threatened species from Lake Mead to the Mexican border may have to reconsider a rare fish left off the biological list.

But Bureau of Reclamation biologists said there is no need to renew studies on the humpback chub, an endangered fish found in the Colorado River.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the bureau had a hearing Monday on the final biological opinion on endangered species in the Lower Colorado River, from Lake Mead to the Mexican border, after an 18-month ongoing process.

If a case can be made that the scarce fish swims in Lake Mead, the bureau would have to look at another biological assessment for the fish.

The federal agencies are racing against a legal clock set in one of two lawsuits filed to protect endangered or threatened fish and birds.

The state of Nevada, however, is not involved in the lawsuit filed by the Tucson-based Southwest Center for Biological Diversity. In that case, the Southwest willow flycatcher, a rare bird threatened by rising river waters, along with a jaguar, an owl and a salamander are facing a July 17 deadline in a Phoenix federal courtroom.

The Fish and Wildlife Service set July 11 as the end of public comment on its biological plan for Lake Mead and the Lower Colorado. The Las Vegas hearing was the first in a three-day series. Tuesday's hearing moves to Phoenix and Wednesday's to Yuma, both in Arizona.

The Southwest Center for Biological Diversity did file a separate suit on behalf of the willow flycatcher involving Lake Mead and the Lower Colorado River in April.

The Fish and Wildlife Service biological opinion, issued May 16, said that Bureau of Recreation water delivery, flood control and power production won't affect two species, the proposed Yuma Flapper Rail and flat-tailed horned lizard.

But the service set five-year and 50-year goals for the bureau to protect habitat for the endangered bonytail chub, razorback sucker and the Southwestern willow flycatcher.