Western Watersheds Project, Forest Guardians and the Committee for the High Desert (formerly the Committee for Idaho's High Desert) have sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, alleging the agency violated the Clean Water Act by allowing livestock grazing to pollute streams and wetlands in Nevada.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Reno just days after the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, claims the BLM has permitted cattle to foul the waters of several tributaries of the Humboldt River, despite monitoring that shows gross violation of state water quality standards.

The lawsuit aims to halt cattle grazing along polluted streams and springs within the 536,000-acre Carico Lake Allotment, one of the largest in the western United States, and to demonstrate that livestock grazing that pollutes streams is illegal.

"If we want healthy, functioning streams that produce clean water, fish and wildlife habitat, and recreational values, then we must eliminate livestock grazing, especially along degraded streams, as is the case throughout the Carico Lake Allotment," said John Horning, executive director of Forest Guardians.

In May 2000 the BLM released a report on the Carico Lake Allotment which overwhelmingly concluded that cattle in and around streams, rivers and springs directly caused water quality violations for temperature, fecal coliform (due to excretion directly into the water), turbidity and sedimentation (due to streambank trampling by cattle). Since the report was published, the agency has done nothing to correct these violations.

"With this lawsuit, we aim to hold all public land ranchers accountable for violations of the Clean Water Act and to finally assert that any grazing that causes or contributes to water pollution is illegal," said Jon Marvel, executive director of Western Watersheds Project, underscoring the scope of the lawsuit.

Cattle are notorious for polluting streams, springs and rivers. They routinely congregate in large numbers around rare and fragile water sources, stripping away vegetation and trampling streambanks.

Livestock grazing on the Carico Lake Allotment is also damaging the habitat of sensitive wildlife species such as the Western sage grouse and Northern goshawk.