Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Endangered Status for Three Aquatic Snails, and Threatened Status for Three Aquatic Snails in the Mobile River Basin of Alabama

The Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) determines the cylindrical lioplax (Lioplax cyclostomaformis), flat pebblesnail (Lepyrium showalteri), and plicate rocksnail (Leptoxis plicata) to be endangered species; and the painted rocksnail (Leptoxis taeniata), round rocksnail (Leptoxis ampla), and lacy elimia (Elimia crenatella) to be threatened species under the authority of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). These aquatic snails are found in localized portions of the Black Warrior, Cahaba, Alabama, and Coosa rivers or their tributaries in central Alabama. Impoundment and water quality degradation have eliminated the six snails from 90 percent or more of their historic habitat. Surviving populations are currently threatened by pollutants such as sediments and nutrients that wash into streams from the land surface. This action implements the protection of the Act for these six snail species.