In the annals of environmental law, no creature is more famous than the Snail Darter, the endangered species that shut down completion of the Tellico Dam in the 1970s. It required congressional legislation to allow the dam to be finished after years in the courts where judges maintained that the species had to be protected under the Endangered Species Act. According to the New York Times., the species may turn out to be as mythical as a unicorn.
The controversy began in 1967 when the Tennessee Valley Authority started constructing a dam on the Little Tennessee River, roughly 20 miles outside Knoxville. Environmentalists and locals opposed the project and, in 1973, a zoologist at the University of Tennessee named David Etnier went snorkeling with his students and found a possible solution. He spotted a small fish and called it a “snail darter” because of its movements and eating habits. He reportedly announced “Here’s a little fish that might save your farm.”
Dr. Zygmunt Plater, an environmental law professor at Boston College, represented the snail darter before the Supreme Court. He did an excellent job and, in 1978, the Supreme Court ruled that “the Endangered Species Act prohibits impoundment of the Little Tennessee River by the Tellico Dam” to protect the endangered snail darters.
That was then.
The Times now quotes Thomas Near, the curator of ichthyology at the Yale Peabody Museum who leads a fish biology lab at the university, that “there is, technically, no snail darter.” Worse yet, it was actually just another member of the eastern population of Percina uranidea, or stargazing darters, which is not considered endangered.
Near and his colleagues have published the results in Current Biology
In other words, years of litigation and millions of dollars were spent on what was a false claim, and the courts accepted the claims hook, line, and sinker.
Under the ESA, the snail darter was listed as protected and therefore triggered Section 7 of the Act barring federal agencies from undertaking actions that could jeopardize a species’ survival or destroy any of its critical habitat.
In Tennessee Valley Auth. v. Hill, 437 U.S. 153 (1978), Chief Justice Warren Burger noted that the finding of this “previously unknown species of perch” changed everything on a legal level. He added:
“Until recently, the finding of a new species of animal life would hardly generate a cause celebre. This is particularly so in the case of darters, of which there are approximately 130 known species, 8 to 10 of these having been identified only in the last five years. The moving force behind the snail darter’s sudden fame came some four months after its discovery, when the Congress passed the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (Act), 87 Stat. 884, 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq. (1976 ed.).”
Plater insisted that Dr. Near is merely a “lumper” who tends to rely on genetics rather than being a “splitter” who proliferates new species. Dr. Plater added that “whether he intends it or not, lumping is a great way to cut back on the Endangered Species Act.”
That was a particularly revealing point from the law professor since it suggests what could be an overwhelming motive could be legal and not scientific in declaring the new species — the very objection raised in the litigation and denied by many advocates.
Roughly three years ago, the government declared victory in restoring the snail darter and the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed removing it from the ESA list of threatened species.
(OT) Los Angeles Fires
California politicians (especially the smarmy Newsom) flush perfectly good water down the toilet. They demolish perfectly good dams. They fail to build water storage facilities. (Then they’re shocked when fire hydrants run dry.) They appoint a DEI fire chief and hire the “inclusive-ones.” They *defund* the fire department and send perfectly good fire fighting equipment to Ukraine.
They fail to practice good forestry management to mitigate wildfires. (For a radical contrast, see Finland.) And, yes, there are massive *forest* fires in LA — numerous fires across thousands of acres in the Angeles National *Forest*. Their “preparation” for such a catastrophe amounts to photo ops *after* the devastation.
Nature may have started those fires. But it is destructive, Leftist policies that made them a conflagration.
California politicians (especially the smarmy Newsom) flush perfectly good water down the toilet.
Sam, it’s worse than that, far worse. That perfectly good water doesn’t even get captured to make it to our homes, business or agricultural industry. Billions of gallons of water are flushed directly into the ocean each year. To add insult to injury, when the residents of this state take proactive steps to reduce water consumption, the regional water districts increase rates because of the lost revenue. But at least the delta smelt are protected. 🤬
Yes, hands down mismanagement. Insurance companies are smarter and pulled out. There’s nothing to do about it. Don’t live there.
Yes, hands down mismanagement. Insurance companies are smarter and pulled out. There’s nothing to do about it. Don’t live there.
Mismanagement at a catastrophic scale. While retreat is an option, I’m not giving up and ceding this state to communists. If we can achieve that on a national scale, we sure as he!! can achieve that at the state and local level. The question is: are things bad enough yet for the citizens of this state? So of course something can be done about it. 1. Secure the election process from fraud. 2. Elect different management (politicians). Insurance regulators forced the companies hands by preventing them from increasing premiums to cover the risk.
“Insurance regulators forced the companies hands by preventing them from increasing premiums to cover the risk.”
An excellent point. Price controls always cause shortages. Which, of course, anti-capitalists completely ignore in their mad dash to condemn insurance companies.
“There’s nothing to do about it.”
Yes there is. Vote for politicians who like human beings to be productive and happy.
From your linked Tennessee Valley Auth. v. Hill, 437 U.S. 153 (1978) SCOTUS case:
Footnote 6: The snail darter was scientifically described by Dr. Etnier in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, Vol. 88, No. 44, pp. 469-488 (Jan. 22, 1976). The scientific merit and content of Dr. Etnier’s paper on the snail darter were checked by a panel from the Smithsonian Institution prior to publication. See App. 111.
Lesson here: one research paper literally proves nothing. That was the error SCOTUS committed and believing the Smithsonian Institution panel.
Now that Americans have come to realize that science is as flawed as every other discipline, one useful website they can use that academics also utilize is:
Retraction Watch: Tracking retractions as a window into the scientific process
https://retractionwatch.com
Retraction Watch provides regular notices of scientific papers that are retracted or withdrawn because of unscrupulous scientists, manipulated / fraudulent data or outright dishonesty, authored by not a few notable scientists. Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins come to mind as frauds, manipulators and dishonest
e.g. Top 10 most highly cited retracted papers
https://retractionwatch.com/the-retraction-watch-leaderboard/top-10-most-highly-cited-retracted-papers/
You’re a doctor, right?
Do you think medical science today is the same as it was in the 1970s?
Of course not. Same thing with DNA testing for speciation.
Come on, man.
You did not understand Estovir’s comment. Maybe you could swim upstream in that tradition of spawn trolls, to the cesspool of scum found in septic tanks where perhaps you can evolve. Nah, we didn’t think so either
“In other words, years of litigation and millions of dollars were spent on what was a false claim, and the courts accepted the claims hook, line, and sinker.”
This is a serious problem in our time. Lawyers and journalists are intimidated by the term “scientist”. If someone claims to be a “scientist” or even “expert”, and is not challenged, lawyers/journalists tend to accept their opinions at face value, instead of exercising their critical faculties. That is how we ended with the COVID lies. It is also why journalists often preface their stories with the phrase “experts say.”
How about delisting the Delta Smelt so the rest of California beyond the north can get some water!
I saw this comment on a youtube video:
Native Californian here. Those of us outside the three metropolitan centers are well-aware of these issues, I.e. what happens when you dump our water into the ocean for a 2 inch long fish, or don’t clean the forest floor like we’re supposed to be because it’s bad for the environment or something stupid like that. We lost 25% of all giant sequoias, one of our most important species, because the people of LA, Sacramento and the Bay Area decided they didn’t want to clean the forest, because these people in giant cities like to pretend they’re environmentally conscious., which is the root of this issue. These people vote based on what inflates their ego and makes them feel better than everyone else, and the rest of us are left to deal with the consequences. These people have no idea how the environment works because theirs is made of concrete, yet they get the final say because there’s more of them than the rest of us. And this is the result.
Not to mention wildfires are a yearly thing down in Southern CA. What’s going on is horrible, but looking at what happens year after year you think they would’ve learned by now.
Ironically, I watched the movie “Chinatown” last night for the first time in many years, and not because the Cali fire is in the news – I didn’t even recall the background context for the plot (water and rights to same in the LA basin) prior to watching. But it did strike me that, while California may be in much worse shape now that at the time when the movie is set, politicians haven’t changed one iota.
Just found this on Free Republic! Firemen using handbags full of water to throw on fires! Three cheers for Democrat mayors!
https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1877364457111769196
How many false claims and studies have the Democrats pushed on the country? So, we have the snail darter. The claim that there are little trans kids, and if we don’t castrate them, they will kill themselves. VoterID is racist, and suppresses the minority vote. A trans woman is a real woman. Boys’ restrooms need tampon dispensers. Trump colluded with the Russians, and peed on a bed somewhere. Eggs are bad for you. Real butter is bad for you. The oceans will boil by 2010, 2015,2020, 2025 etc. The polar bears are dying! We must take down all Confederate flags, so black people can prosper, We must rename the Redskins, so native-Americans can be equal or saved or whatever. We must rename military bases so that blacks can prosper. We must transition to electric cars to save the planet! Women should get jobs, and the heck with being wives and mothers! (see the Birth Rate Death Spiral). Women can be promiscuous just like men, and drink and smoke just like men. Men and women are equal. It is unfair to keep trans women out of women’s sports. Nuclear power is bad. You shouldn’t spank your kids. God is dead, and never was. etc etc etc
A Democrat would never push forth a false claim for political gain over the truth! Are you serious? We all know Trump wee wee’d on Russian hookers on Obama’s bed and the Steele Dossier is 100% true. How dare you, Vince Foster and Epstein killed themselves and 2020 mail in ballots were all without fraud! S/ for the dimmywits
It has happened.
An American Bald Eagle was caught in the very act & filmed by Eskimos in Homer, Alaska….Dumpster diving for a tasty meal.
Dear Mr. Turley, well, rack this one up to one of the most stupid things ever pulled on the American people. I remember those days of the hyper-environmentalist. It was crazy to say the least. Most American school children were taught the “Pollution Song” in school and it was crammed down our throats that people were a danger to the planet. We were taught “Zero Population Growth” in order to limit how many children were born. Then abortion was legalized with these thoughts in our collective minds. I don’t believe these concepts which have become law have improved the society at large.
Aha, the old Straw Fish argument. After all, there could have been a Snail Darter. And did it not serve its purpose, to delay a project by creation of an emergency. The climate/environmental crowd needs an innocent something to exact extreme prices for its protection. But it’s not now in application to protect the whales off the New Jersey coast from the virtuous wind turbines. How come?
Right now in California many of the Left Winged Homo Sapien habitats are endangered of extinction. Sad as it is that so many are suffering this fate, one must ask how can such educated mammals find themselves in this situation. I think their mayor said it all (or didn’t say), yesterday she defined a deer caught in the headlights when asked a question, any question. I think if the California Left Winged Homo Sapien continues to elect Extreme Left Winged Homo Sapiens to office they will continue to suffer tragedy.
I forgot to mention that their governor might stop trying to “Trump Proof” his state. Instead work with the new administration to protect his constituents from problems his created.
The problem with a governmental institution is that it must do something to justify and use the millions of dollars in its budget. Henceforth, they swam and they swam all over the dam courtesy of the American taxpayer. And you didn’t even get a kiss.
And after the environmentalist shut down the logging industry because the loggers were eradicating the spotted owls, the truth was later revealed that it was the barred owls that were killing off the spotted owls. The Endangered Species Act of 1974 needs to be repealed.
Someone must have scrubbed the videos, but similar instance of shutting down beloved Drake’s Oyster Bar up in Pt Reyes Ca about 12 years ago. The environmentalists were using data from a 50 year old study done in Japan to substantiate their claims against this oyster farming entity.
Professor Turley,
The genetic testing available today is far superior to the tools available in the 1970s to determine speciation. To suggest there was an agenda to intentionally denote this fish a separate species is ridiculous.
Right!
OJ did it…
George Floyd OD…
CIA killed Kennedy…
Michele is a tranny…
UFOs are not really extraterrestrial…
2020 election was stolen…
Biden is NOT sharp as a tack…
Stupid reply.
Stupid argument
Question authority, what me worry?
Well if a crime was being committed by humanity in the possible extinction level event for the Snail Darter, then I would suppose we should have had a necropsy done on any found Snail Darter bodies and checked their DNA against that of other species in the area.
Obviously this was a crime of massive proportions when the necropsy and DNA was not obtained. I think this would have been reason for dismissal of the case. It would seem any good criminal attorney would have yelled for DNA proof.
I would have thought Perry Mason, Clarence Darrow, Alan Dershowitz, Jonathan Turley would have had a fit that the DNA data was not forthcoming and the Dam could have been cleared of all ecological crimes up to and including extinction event. To think the Dam has suffered all these years with it’s integrity and reputation so horribly impugned.
There was no such thing as DNA tests in the 1970s.
Actually, no. Students of a college genetics course learn that Down Syndrome was identified via DNA tests in 1959. DNA Sequencing was perfected by Frederick Sanger in the 1970s, known as Sanger Sequencing, which is still used today. I teach grad students how to perform them via gel electrophoresis. In fact, Sanger Sequencing was used to identify the sequence of the spike protein of the COVID virus
If not for the discoveries of Catholic monk and abbot, Gregor Mendel, 19th Century, we would be no where today. There is no one particular moment in time when one can say with certainty when a genetic test revealed undeniable identification. Even today’s advanced genetics using single-cell RNA sequencing, fails to provide 100% identification. Flow Cytometry (1970s techniques) must confirm scRNA sequencing. certainty in science is a myth.
Lesson from the snail darter ruse: science is as exact as Catholic doctrines. Faith required in both.
LEJEUNE J, GAUTIER M, TURPIN R. Etude des chromosomes somatiques de neuf enfants mongoliens [Study of somatic chromosomes from 9 mongoloid children]. C R Hebd Seances Acad Sci. 1959 Mar 16;248(11):1721-2. French.
Estovir
Are you a microbiologist, a TA, Doctoral Student or what exactly is your profession?
Estovir- great answer. Someone actually took me seriously when I was making fun of this historically stupid event . It was so stupid we can only make fun of it now and remember multiple studies are always needed to validate
@Milhouse: There was no such thing as DNA tests in the 1970s.
Why do you continually post such random contrarian Bull Schiff? Trying to steal the crown from Gigi?
Old Airborne Dog
An action is not a crime until it has been committed and then adjustcated. Their is no earthly or heavenly law involving the premise: “possible extinction of ” …
A Mexican 5 legged tortoise has been spotted down by the border which should halt Trump’s plan to build a wall. Very rare, very hard to find and very endangered.
Ah yes, the infamous John Holmes tortoise. Multiple biologists have mistaken the fifth appendage as a leg….
It’s not a new species, it’s just a well-endowed desert tortoise named Ed. He’s getting on in years at 90 but he still gets it done.
Checking the scientific paper this is based on yielded the following:
1. Even if the snail darter had been considered a distinct sub population instead of a different species it may still have been protected under the ESA, which can protect distinct sub populations as well as different species;
2. Immediately after the 1976 decision, Congress excepted the Tellico Dam from the reach of the ESA and the dam was completed and the reservoir filled in 1979; and
3. Despite this, the snail darter migrated elsewhere and survived and flourished and is no longer endangered.
It seems to me the real story here is not about the line between a species and a sub population but rather about the weakness of our ability to predict the consequences of our actions affecting the environment.
This is a perfect example of why the powers of government must be drastically and universally limited.
I pine for the day when democrats are an endangered species.
Be careful, for without Ying there is no Yang!
@Traveler
I actually agree, we need multiple parties – but multiple *American* parties, not an American party and a globalist regime wholly antithetical to our Constitution and law.
A Jesse Ventura quote is that a two party system is only one party better than the Communist Party.
@Traveller A Jesse Ventura quote is that a two party system is only one party better than the Communist Party.
Did that well known intellectual offer his views on where a three party system/three candidate election that offered a third alternative would rate?
A third party candidate gave us the original racist, police state fascist “progressive”, Democrat Woodrow Wilson
A third party conservative candidate gave us that later racist (but not quite police state fascist), Democrat Bill Clinton.
Locally, third party Libertarians here in Montana saddled us with another six years of Senator Commie Jon Tester, pulling just enough votes to allow him to squeak by the Republican.
Bitter reality sometimes should make us think we should fight even harder for the candidates we want at the grassroots level rather than our dissatisfaction with who we get leading us to hope that giving our votes to a wild card alternative will somehow or other give us the president or senator that we want to have.
Old Airborne Dog.
Hmmm , I recall a man named Ross Perot… unfortunately, our uni-party system is all powerful due to the money that a good candidate would never make it to the playoffs.
@Traveller: Hmmm , I recall a man named Ross Perot…
Okay, if that’s to be the Jesse Ventura dodge, there’s the Greens, the communists, and the Libertarians – the ones who have repeatedly screwed us here in Montana and sucked away just enough votes to leave us with Senators and Governors like the just defeated Commie Jon Tester. I think Teddy Roosevelt had his “Bull Moose Party” that succeeded in giving us Woodrow Wilson – as well as the conversion of the Senate via the 17th Amendment.
I don’t know the last time there was only two parties to choose from during an American presidential election, but it almost certainly wasn’t within the lifetime of anyone alive in America. Certainly long before Jesse Ventura was born to bless this country with his analytical wisdom.
Like Jimmy Carter, you can do some laudable things in your life and still be a complete idiot when it comes to other important issues in life.
Old Airborne Dog
When the ying is cancerous we remove it so that a new, more wholesome ying may take its place
Wonderful! Without Ying, there is no Yang? Sounds like the free market — no supply without demand, and no demand without supply. Balance is key, but too much regulation tips the scales! We will all become an endangered species if Democrats get their way.
Perhaps but unfettered capitalism is no better than communism.
Traveler, it depends on what you mean by unfettered. Does your unfettered capitalism end contract law? Capitalism can be extreme and still be better than communism.
Unfettered to me would mean lack of governance that by definition is the means to regulate commerce. This would mean an irrational reduction of laws, rules and regulations that have been promulgated to provide equal consideration to the citizenry, the environment and economy against those of the business enterprise. Contract law is contract law, not so much a control over capitalism between parties. Greed is the cancer of capitalism as it places the monetary return above all other considerations. It is inherent to our nature, some are more susceptible than others. This very thing is why we are covered in lobbyists and see some of these environmental atrocities unfold before us. It’s a never ending tug of war, between the rabid environmentalists, bureaucracy and the corporate interests. It is not to our benefit but to the benefit of greed.
Just my observation and opinion, can’t even get a cup of coffee for that.
I am trying to think of those things not covered by contract law that would make “unfettered capitalism is no better than communism.” Off the top of my head I can see troubled waters that would mostly settle down, but nothing the free market can’t replace that would be so devastating if lost.
Think back prior to EPA regulations, RCRA. There were rivers that actually burned, that was an application of unfettered capitalism were the public be damned. No difference than a communist dictatorship reaping the benefits from the market place while destroying our country’s resources.
There is no doubt that such events occurred and were awful.
Firstly, that is the end product of communism but is limited in the free market, where it eventually disappears.
Now, think about the results following that type of intervention, which results in the government calling a puddle on your lawn a lake. There are distinct trade-offs that result in almost all being worse off.
Now, recognize that the river is a common good, and since one person cannot shoot his rifle indiscriminately on his quarter-acre property, neither does he have a right to pollute a river that is owned by everyone. There are much better ways to address the problem.
I don’t look at your example as being outside of contract law. That polluter is doing damage to others and can be held responsible.
It was the discovery of the Cardiff Giant. With an agenda.