Snail darter controversy
On August 12, 1973, University of Tennessee biologist and professor David Etnier discovered the snail darter in the Little Tennessee River while doing a reconnaissance snorkel survey in an effort to document the fish community that existed prior to the impending destruction of the pristine riverine habitat (Etnier 1976.
Believing the snail darter to be uniquely different from any closely-related species, Etnier began the process of publishing a formal scientific description that explicitly compared/contrasted physical features of the fish against the most likely closely related taxon, the Stargazing Darter (Percina uranidea) (Etnier, 1976).
Even before the formal description was published, USFWS was petitioned to list the snail darter as endangered, and that was put into effect in November 1975.
Appropriations committees in both the House and Senate had taken a strong position against stopping the dam and reservoir project in order to protect the snail darter.
[3] In Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill, 437 U.S. 153 (1978), Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote for the majority.
The court replied to the Tennessee Valley Authority's arguments and expanded on its decision:[7] Burger's opinion emphasized that, as written, the Endangered Species Act explicitly forbade the completion of such projects as Tellico if the Secretary of Interior had determined that such a project would likely result in the elimination of a species.
"[7] Supporters of the dam project, who believed that it would serve a much larger public good than protection of the snail darter, reacted in an effort to rework the Endangered Species Act.
Howard Baker was a leading sponsor of an amendment to the Endangered Species Act that was passed into law in November 1978.
But, instead of granting Tellico an exemption from the Endangered Species Act, the committee voted unanimously in favor of the snail darter, largely finding that the dam project had poor economic issues.
"I hate to see the snail darter get the credit for stopping a project that was ill-conceived and uneconomic in the first place," said Chairman Andrus.
Despite his credentials as one of the nation's top economists, however, Schultze was no more prepared to accurately predict future benefits than anyone else at the time.
Wheeler and McDonald state the problem was TVA's general unfamiliarity with the econometric models used to come up with benefit-cost ratios.
The Supreme Court had stated that as written, it was clear that Congress intended to protect all species, including the snail darter.
The Tennessee snail darter, the bane of my existence, the nemesis of my golden years, the bold perverter of the Endangered Species Act is back.
Although other residences have been found in which he can thrive serenely, the snail darter stubbornly insists on keeping this particular stretch of the Little Tennessee River as his principal domicile.
On September 25, 1979, President Jimmy Carter signed the bill that exempted the Tellico Dam from the Endangered Species Act.
Fish and Wildlife Service effective November 4, 2022 after achievement of recovery criteria and the finding of additional populations within the Tennessee River drainage.
As part of the media coverage related to the publication release date, one of the authors stated in an interview that the original descriptors of the species may have “squinted their eyes a bit” when describing it as a way to fight the dam, and that it may have possibly been intentionally described as distinct due to the downstream conservation impacts of its description.
This accusation ignores the fact that the formal species description (Etnier, 1976) was thoroughly peer-reviewed before publication and has withstood decades of scrutiny—-even from biologists employed by TVA.
