A trio of tiny salamander species could mean big trouble for federal officials spearheading a controversial $1.4-billion public works project to heighten the Shasta Dam in Northern California.
The Center for Biological Diversity asked the wildlife service in 2012 to declare the amphibians either endangered or threatened, but the agency never made a decision, said Jenny Loda, an attorney for the environmental group.
Under federal law, U.S. Fish and Wildlife was required to make a determination on the salamanders within a year. After six years passed with no ruling, the center decided to sue.
The move was prompted, in part, by the federal government’s sudden momentum in efforts to raise the Shasta Dam nearly two stories, a project that environmentalists say would destroy the salamanders’ habitat and put them at risk of extinction.
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