Farmers, ranchers and State of Texas win whooping crane case

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed a district court decision on July 30 and ruled in favor of the State of Texas in a lawsuit concerning the whooping crane. It was the classic example of water for people weighed against an environmental group suing under the Federal Endangered Species Act. The Fifth Circuit concluded the environmental group, The Aransas Project (TAP), failed to prove the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) management of water permits resulted in the deaths of whooping cranes. The court also concluded an injunction imposed by District Court Judge Janice Jack on water management was an abuse of discretion. This is a great win for farmers, ranchers, property owners and all Texans who would suffer from the lower court’s opinion that overreached and relied on dubious science. TAP sued, claiming the State of Texas was responsible for the deaths of 23 cranes in an estimated population of 247 birds in the winter of 2008-09. TAP’s evidence consisted of two carcasses and the failure to see cranes during aerial surveys. In spite of this claim, the Fifth Circuit noted in its ruling the numbers of whooping cranes has continued to increase with the latest estimate of 300 in the winter 2011-12. The Fifth Circuit unanimously reversed the district court’s judgment holding that TCEQ is not liable for takes under the Endangered Species Act. They ruled the deaths of the whooping cranes that live part-time in Texas are too remote from TCEQ’s process for issuing surface water permits from the San Antonio and Guadalupe Rivers. The Fifth Circuit agreed with the position Texas Farm Bureau has taken all along. There are too many factors between TCEQ’s permitting process and purported whooping crane deaths to blame TCEQ. Hopefully, this will be the end of this ill-advised litigation...more