Environmental groups threaten lawsuit over Birmingham darter protections

The Center for Biological Diversity, Alabama Rivers Alliance and Black Warrior Riverkeeper announced Thursday that they intend to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after the agency failed to determine whether the Birmingham darter may warrant protected status under the Endangered Species Act.

The impending suit comes a year after the Center and others filed a petition with the agency seeking protections for the rare Alabama fish species. According to the groups, the Service subsequently failed to make a determination within the legally required 90-day deadline under the Endangered Species Act.

The groups' advocacy comes amid concerns that both the construction of a hyperscale data center in Bessemer and the proposed Northern Beltline highway project around Birmingham could harm local wildlife, including the darter.

“Birmingham darters don’t have time for the Fish and Wildlife Service to slow-walk this decision. Every day these darters spend waiting for protections brings them that much closer to extinction,” said Laurel Jobe, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “These tiny fish are threatened in almost every part of their current range, with industrial pollution and hyperscale data center development degrading the places they live.”

According to the organizations, the Birmingham darter only has six known populations which currently live within an "extremely limited range" of the Valley Creek system in Jefferson County—an area "historically rife with industrial pollution and poor water quality because of increasing urbanization."

“Water pollution threats to the Birmingham darter’s habitat in Valley Creek and its tributaries are putting this rare endemic species at risk,” said Nelson Brooke, Black Warrior Riverkeeper. “It is the Fish and Wildlife Service’s job to utilize the protections of the Endangered Species Act to ensure rare species are not wiped off the map.”

“It is obvious from its limited range and small population that the Birmingham darter is endangered, even if the Fish and Wildlife Service has not acted on this petition,” added Charles Miller, policy director at Alabama Rivers Alliance. “Given the multiple imminent threats this rare species faces, the Service must fulfill their statutory obligation and act swiftly to protect it.”

The Service now has 60 days to respond to the groups’ notice of intent to sue and decide whether protection for the darters is warranted or the lawsuit will proceed.