Federal and state officials are partnering on a proposal for a $6 million pipeline that would help sustain an endangered species of fish during New Mexico's extremely dry times.
The Bureau of Reclamation and the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission are looking to use the water stored in Sumner Reservoir, about 16 miles northwest of Fort Sumner, to create a fish pool for bluntnose shiners, tiny minnows that only live in a 170-mile stretch of the Pecos River in New Mexico.
The proposal is still subject to bureau internal feasibility study and other bureaucratic hurdles.
Wildlife officials say the bluntnose shiner population had been growing before drought conditions dried out the Pecos between Sumner Dam and Brantley Dam between 2011 and 2013.
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Information from: Albuquerque Journal, http://www.abqjournal.com
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