Environmentalists on Thursday revived efforts to protect a freshwater East Coast mussel called the brook floater.
Fifteen years after filing a petition to list the mussel under the Endangered Species Act, and nearly six years after the Fish and Wildlife Service denied the listing proposal, the Center for Biological Diversity reiterated the request in a lawsuit.
“Brook floater mussels work tirelessly day after day to clean the waters that we all rely on, but they desperately need endangered species protections,” said Tierra Curry, senior scientist and endangered species co-director at the center. “We’re still fixing the damage from the first Trump administration, and these mussels should’ve never been denied protections in the first place.”
According to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the mussel faces myriad threats ranging from dams and water pollution to mining and climate change.
