The Committees consistently recommended appropriations for the dam, sometimes stating their views that the Act did not prohibit completion of the dam at its advanced stage, and Congress each time approved TVA's general budget, which contained funds for the dam's continued construction. At various times before, during, and after the foregoing judicial proceedings, TVA represented to congressional Appropriations Committees that the Act did not prohibit completion of the Tellico Project and described its efforts to transplant the snail darter.
Though finding that the impoundment of the reservoir would probably jeopardize the snail darter's continued existence, the court noted that Congress, though fully aware of the snail darter problem, had continued Tellico's appropriations, and concluded that "t some point in time a federal project becomes so near completion and so incapable of modification that a court of equity should not apply a statute enacted long after inception of the project produce an unreasonable result." The Court of Appeals reversed and ordered the District Court permanently to enjoin completion of the project "until Congress, by appropriate legislation, exempts Tellico from compliance with the Act or the snail darter has been deleted from the list of endangered species or its critical habitat materially redefined." The court held that the record revealed a prima facie violation of § 7 in that the Tennessee Valley Authority had failed to take necessary action to avoid jeopardizing the snail darter's critical habitat by its "actions." The court thus rejected the contention that the word "actions" as used in § 7 was not intended by Congress to encompass the terminal phases of ongoing projects.
Snail darter trial#
The District Court after trial denied relief and dismissed the complaint. Having determined that the snail darter apparently lives only in that portion of the Little Tennessee River that would be completely inundated by t e impoundment of the reservoir created as a consequence of the completion of the Tellico Dam, he declared that area as the snail darter's "critical habitat." Notwithstanding the near completion of the multimillion-dollar dam, the Secretary issued a regulation, in which it was declared that, pursuant to § 7, "all Federal agencies must take such action as is necessary to ensure that actions authorized, funded, or carried out by them do not result in the destruction or modification of this critical habitat area." Respondents brought this suit to enjoin completion of the dam and impoundment of the reservoir, claiming that those actions would violate the Act by causing the snail darter's extinction. Thereafter the Secretary made the designation. to be critical." Shortly after the Act's passage the Secretary was petitioned to list a small fish popularly known as the snail darter as an endangered species under the Act. and by taking such action necessary to insure that actions authorized, funded, or carried out by them do not jeopardize the continued existence of such endangered species and threatened species or result in the destruction or modification of habitat of such species which is determined by the Secretary.
with the assistance of the Secretary, utilize their authorities in furtherance of the purposes of Act by carrying out programs for the conservation of endangered species. More than 50 species have been removed from the ESA since the law was enacted, including bald eagles, peregrine falcons, Tennessee purple coneflowers and American alligators.The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (Act) authorizes the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) in § 4 to declare a species of life "endangered." Section 7 specifies that all "federal departments and agencies shall. Its population has since been expanded to Alabama Georgia and Mississippi. These steps helped boost the fish's recovery, allowing the snail darter to recolonize in Tennessee waterways. However, the TVA worked to transplant the snail darter to other rivers and streams.įederal officials say the TVA also worked to improve water flows and increase oxygen in more than 300 miles of river downstream from their dams. In 1978, the court ruled in favor of protections for the fish and halted work on the nearly completed dam.Ĭongress later exempted the dam from the law to allow the project to be completed. Supreme Court, marking the first time the nation’s highest court took up an ESA case. The case eventually made its way to the U.S. Construction of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Tellico Dam in eastern Tennessee threatened the habitat of the newly discovered fish, located just above the site of the project.
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