Whooping Crane Case Could Affect State Water Supplies

As drought conditions and dry forecasts persist across Texas, lawyers will argue a case in front of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday that could have major implications for water supplies in the state — and for natural resource planning nationally. Known as the “whooping crane case,” the lawsuit (The Aransas Project v. Bryan Shaw, Etc., No. 13-40317) pits environmental and endangered species advocates against state and local officials across the country. State agencies worry it could end up making them responsible for protecting federally designated endangered species. Farming organizations from California to Mississippi and Wyoming have attached their names to briefs in support of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which was sued by The Aransas Project in 2010 for failing to protect the only wild whooping crane flock in the world. Of the estimated 500 whooping cranes that exist worldwide, about 300 live in the Aransas Refuge, which is 50 miles northeast of Corpus Christi. The nonprofit Aransas Project argues that the TCEQ violated the federal Endangered Species Act because it didn’t allow enough freshwater from the San Antonio and Guadalupe rivers to flow into the Aransas Refuge, resulting in the deaths of 23 cranes in the winter of 2008 and 2009. In March, U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack agreed with The Aransas Project, ordering TCEQ to come up with a plan to conserve the cranes’ habitat, and blocking the agency from issuing more permits in the river systems. TCEQ immediately appealed the ruling, and its supporters slammed the judge for interfering with states’ rights by “coercing” a state agency to enforce federal laws...more