BIRMINGHAM, Ala.— The Center for Biological Diversity, Alabama Rivers Alliance and Black Warrior Riverkeeper today notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that they intend to sue over the agency’s failure to decide whether Birmingham darters may warrant Endangered Species Act protections. The Center and allies filed a petition seeking protections for the rare Alabama fish in Nov. 2025 and the Service missed a legally required 90-day deadline to decide whether protections may be warranted.

“Birmingham darters don’t have time for the Fish and Wildlife Service to slow-walk this decision because every day these darters spend waiting for protections brings them that much closer to extinction,” said Laurel Jobe, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “These tiny fish are threatened in almost every part of their current range from industrial pollution to hyperscale data center development degrading the places they live.”

Birmingham darters have only six known populations occupying an extremely limited range entirely within the Valley Creek system in Jefferson County, Alabama. This area is historically rife with industrial pollution and poor water quality due to increasing urbanization. These factors prompted last year’s listing petition to secure federal protections for the darter.

“Water pollution threats to the Birmingham darter’s habitat in Valley Creek and its tributaries are putting this rare endemic species at risk,” said Nelson Brooke, Black Warrior Riverkeeper. “It is the Fish and Wildlife Service’s job to utilize the protections of the Endangered Species Act to ensure rare species are not wiped off the map.”

“It is obvious from its limited range and small population that the Birmingham darter is endangered, even if the Fish and Wildlife Service has not acted on this petition,” said Charles Miller, policy director at Alabama Rivers Alliance. “Given the multiple imminent threats this rare species faces, the Service must fulfill their statutory obligation and act swiftly to protect it.”

The darter remains under constant pressure from emerging local threats, including proposed Northern Beltline highway project around Birmingham and the Project Marvel hyperscale data center near Bessemer, Alabama.

The federal government has missed its legally required 90-day timeline from when the petition was received in Nov. 2025 to respond to the species listing petition and will soon face legal action if it does not correct its failure within 60 days.