Congress Studies Minnow Ruling

Taking water from farms to save a minnow does more than overstep the Endangered Species Act, Belen grower Jessica Sanchez said — it’s killing a family livelihood that goes back four centuries.
Sanchez, whose family grows chiles, watermelons and tomatoes south of Albuquerque, testified Saturday at a field hearing of the House Resources Committee that recent federal-court rulings on water sources for the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow have devastated her family’s harvest.
“I remember when I was younger, (my grandfather) would take us out to the chile fields and he would show us how they irrigate and care for the land, just as his forefathers taught him before,” Sanchez told the panel of five committee members. “So it’s sad for me to see that he has lost over 30 percent of his crop this year due to the judgment regarding the silvery minnow and the willow flycatcher brought forth by the Endangered Species Act,” or ESA, as some referred to it...