BILLINGS, Mont. — U.S. officials will consider an alternative to a dam on the Yellowstone River over worries it could hurt an endangered fish species that dates to the time of dinosaurs, after a judge on Tuesday signed off on a settlement in a lawsuit brought by environmentalists.
The move by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers comes after environmental groups successfully sued to stop the $59 million dam along the Yellowstone near the Montana-North Dakota border.
U.S. District Judge Brian Morris signed off an agreement that puts the lawsuit on hold pending a new study of the project.
The low-profile, concrete dam was intended to replace a weir that for decades has blocked about 125 endangered sturgeon from reaching their upstream spawning grounds. That weir is a porous, rock dam that diverts water for an irrigation system serving more than 50,000 acres of cropland in eastern Montana and western North Dakota.
“We’re hoping the agencies take a real hard, realistic look at just taking that dam out of the river altogether,” said McCrystie Adams, an attorney for the Defenders of Wildlife. “There’s no reason for that dam. You take out the dam, and you fix the problem.”
Morris blocked construction of the new dam in September, after the Defenders of Wildlife and the Natural Resources Defense Council sued the Army Corps last February. The groups argued there was no proof the fish bypass would work.
Pallid sturgeon are known for their distinctive, shovel-shaped snout.
They were listed as an endangered species in 1990 after the population declined sharply during the past century as dams were built along the Missouri River system.
The fish that inhabit the lower Yellowstone have been essentially trapped downstream of the rock weir since it was built in 1905. At least one female fish managed to swim around the structure during high water last year, but that was considered a rare occurrence.
