Snail may pace pipeline push

A snail the size of a pinhead that lives in eastern Nevada springs in the same basin from which the Southern Nevada Water Authority plans to pump groundwater is one of 29 species that biologists will study to find out if they need protection, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supervisor said Wednesday.

The Snake Valley basin snail, known as the "longitudinal gland pyrg," thrives in spring water in White Pine County, some 300 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

A 3-inch fish, the Northern leatherside chub, is found in Raft River in Nevada's northeast corner.

They are among the 29 species in 20 states that may warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Bob Williams, Nevada field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said of the two Nevada species, only the snail could be impacted by the water agency's groundwater pumping project.

But the service won't know until a yearlong study is completed.

"We will take the snail and look at its potential threats and make a decision that it is warranted or not warranted for listing," Williams said by telephone from his Reno office.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority maintains that it can preserve the snail and pump the groundwater responsibly.

If listing the snail is warranted, then it becomes one of a number of species, including the Big Springs spinedace and the Pahrump poolfish, that will be evaluated for the water agency's groundwater pumping project in the Snake and Spring valleys.

Conservation groups and the Confederate Tribes of the Goshute Reservation also petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2007 to list the least chub, another Snake Valley species, for protection as threatened or endangered.

The least chub is further along in the listing process than the snail in the Snake Valley, which Williams described as "early in the listing decision process."

Regarding the snail, water authority spokesman J.C. Davis said, "We were aware of it as a candidate species, and our biologists have already accounted for it in the impact statement being developed" for the Bureau of Land Management.

"If that species becomes listed, then it triggers consultation to show that you're not harming the population," Davis said.

The water authority's groundwater pumping project "is not likely to have an impact" on the snail, Davis said.

Williams said the fact that the snail depends on springs for survival, "and its habitat is associated with spring discharge, it could be suggested that it could have more impact from the groundwater development project than, say, sage grouse."

The 29 species that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will review in 20 states for possible protection as threatened or endangered species include a rare, beach-dwelling plant in Yellowstone National Park, other snails, two insects and 20 plants, in addition to the Northern leatherside chub, a silvery minnow found in Nevada, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming.

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.