📢JUST RELEASED: The Amargosa River was just listed as one of America's Most Endangered Rivers® of 2026

Amargosa River, California | Patrick Donnelly

Protect critical water supply of the Amargosa River

The Amargosa River is a ribbon of life flowing through one of the hottest and driest places in North America. Flowing mostly underground, the river provides critical water and habitat for a variety of plants and animals — many of which can’t be found anywhere else on earth.

The Amargosa River is a living part of the ancestral and current homelands of the Timbisha Shoshone, Southern Paiute, Pahrump Paiute, and Chemehuevi Tribes. To this day, Indigenous communities and low-income and rural communities, in both Nevada and California, rely on the River’s groundwater as a primary drinking source. But proposed mining near the headwaters of the Amargosa and along the borders of Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge threaten the groundwater that sustains the River, putting local communities and already endangered species at risk.

Without its water, this fragile web of life collapses. But the Department of the Interior (DOI) has an opportunity to approve a mineral withdrawal for approximately 309,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land surrounding Ash Meadows, that would protect the region from new mining for up to 20 years.

Please join us in urging the DOI to approve a proposed mineral withdrawal in the next 12 months before temporary protection expires. Implementing a 20-year mineral withdrawal is an important and urgent step toward protecting the critical groundwater that sustains irreplaceable biodiversity at Ash Meadows and supports the communities of the Amargosa River Basin, including the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe.

At the same time, we ask you to urge Congress to permanently protect Ash Meadows, Amargosa Valley, and the sovereign lands and sacred waters of the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe by designating the Ash Meadows National Conservation Area. Establishing a National Conservation Area is urgently necessary to ensure durable protection of groundwater resources, biodiversity, cultural values, and rural and Tribal communities across the Amargosa River Basin.

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Acting Commissioner

Kathy

Moser

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

Regional Director

George

Gorman

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

Commissioner

Amanda

Lefton

New York Department of Environmental Conservation

Regional Director

Cathy

Haas

New York Department of Environmental Conservation

Consistency Rev Unit

Consistency Review Unit

Div of Coastal Resources

New York State Department of State

Dear Secretary Doug Burgum,

Proposed mining near the headwaters of the Amargosa River and along the borders of Ash Meadows threatens the groundwater that sustains the Amargosa River, putting local communities and already endangered species at risk. The proposed expansion of claystone mining operations by St. Cloud Mining’s Ash Meadows Mine project and Lhoist North America’s Amargosa Valley Mine, plus the hundreds of active mining claims for lithium on the border of Ash Meadows, puts watershed health, water supply, and critical wildlife habitat at risk. The projects involve large-scale extraction and exploratory drilling and mining to or below the water table and may entail pumping of groundwater out of an open pit to access the ore. The best available science has shown clearly that dewatering of open pits may put groundwater-fed springs in Ash Meadows and Death Valley National Park at risk of destabilization or drying, which would be catastrophic for numerous endemic and endangered species. 
 
Tribal Nations with ancestral ties to Ash Meadows risk devastating harm to cultural landscapes and sacred sites. Many local residents already face domestic well failures from historic groundwater depletion. Scientific studies suggest that new mining activity has the potential to worsen these inequities and may ultimately lead to the displacement of these frontline communities.

Public pressure in 2023 halted an initial exploratory drilling threat near Ash Meadows until a full review under the National Environmental Policy Act could occur. In 2025, a bipartisan coalition of Tribes, nonprofits, rural governments, and thousands of residents called for a mineral withdrawal for approximately 309,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land surrounding Ash Meadows, protecting the region from new mining for up to 20 years.

This is a chance to follow through on a broadly supported action that seeks to protect the communities and wildlife that cannot survive without the waters of the Amargosa River. We urge you to approve a mineral withdrawal for approximately 309,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land surrounding Ash Meadows, which would protect the region from new mining for up to 20 years. Finalizing this withdrawal is an urgent step toward protecting the critical groundwater that sustains the extraordinary biodiversity of Ash Meadows and supports the health, safety, and cultural continuity of communities throughout the Amargosa River Basin, including the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe.

We also urge Congress to take the next necessary step by designating the Ash Meadows National Conservation Area to permanently protect Ash Meadows, Amargosa Valley, and the sovereign lands and sacred waters of the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe. Establishing a National Conservation Area is essential to ensure durable protection of groundwater resources, biodiversity, cultural values, and rural and Tribal communities across the Amargosa River Basin.

Sincerely,

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