LAREDO, Texas (Border Report) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed listing two species of Texas freshwater mussels that are found in the Rio Grande as endangered species, which would protect their South Texas border habitat under U.S. federal regulations.

The federal agency on Monday issued the proposal to protect the Salina mucket mussels and the Mexican fawnsfoot mussels under the Endangered Species Act, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Salina mucket mussels are found in a 200-mile stretch of the Rio Grande from Big Bend National Park to near Amistad reservoir on the Mexican border. The Mexican fawnsfoot mussels live in a 185-mile segment of the river from the Falcon reservoir in Zapata County to Eagle Pass — the same area where a 1,000-foot-long marine barrier recently was tethered to the riverbed floor under Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star border security initiative.

Dams and habitat destruction have contributed to the decline in the mussels, environmentalists say.

“These are small animals but they do filter the water and that’s how they get nutrients themselves and that does serve to clean up the river. Originally there were millions of mussels up and down the Rio Grande and that would have been a contributor to reducing pollutants, overall,” Michael Robinson, a senior conservation advocate at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity told Border Report on Tuesday.

The Center for Biological Diversity in 2020 filed a lawsuit urging protection of these Texas freshwater mussels. If approved, these mussels will join the Texas hornshell mussel, which also lives in the Rio Grande and in 2018 was deemed an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.

“The Endangered Species Act protection gives these mussels a shot at survival and recovery while at the same time improving the health of the Rio Grande,” he said.

The nonprofit sued for federal protection after noting the Salina mucket has been waiting for a decision on whether it should be environmentally protected for 15 years. The Mexican fawnsfoot has been waiting for 16 years, Robinson said.

“It shouldn’t take the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this long to protect such clearly imperiled species,” Robinson said. “U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service just has a bureaucracy that takes too long. The agency needs to be reformed so that it is required to make these decisions on a steady basis that doesn’t leave creatures waiting so long.”

If these species are determined to be endangered and listed for protection then any federal or state agency working on projects in these affected spans of the Rio Grande would have to check with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service prior to a project that could jeopardize the mussels, Robinson said. But this would not apply to private fishermen or border landowners.

However, the determination won’t happen quickly.

There is a 60 day public comment period on the proposals, and then the federal agency will have one year to make a final listing decision.

Because of the timeline, the marine barriers placed in the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star border security initiative would not be considered in violation of the Endangered Species Act until the determination to protect the species is actually made, which likely won’t happen until the summer of 2024, Robinson said.