Description: Challenge to biological opinion for copper mine in Arizona.
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Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 09/25/2017 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Center for Biological Diversity Challenged Biological Opinion for Copper Mine, Including Failure to Adequately Analyze Climate Impacts. The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Arizona alleging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS’s) biological opinion for a proposed open-pit copper mine on the Coronado National Forest violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Center also alleged that the U.S. Forest Service’s reliance on the biological opinion violated the ESA. The complaint also alleged violations of the Administrative Procedure Act. The Center contended that the mine would significantly impact a number of endangered species, including the Gila chub as well as one of three known wild jaguars in the United States. The complaint’s allegations included that the combined impacts of the mine and climate change would cause reduced flows in “key reaches” of a creek that had the only known stable and secure population of Gila chub in existence and also included more general allegations that the biological opinion failed to adequately describe and analyze the environmental baseline and cumulative effects, including the impacts of climate change.