Source: http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/375/1085/559684/
Timestamp: 2017-09-24 15:54:11
Document Index: 441872444

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 706', '§ 461', '§ 470', '§ 1131', '§ 1133', '§ 1131', '§ 1131', '§ 1133', '§ 1133', '§ 1133', '§ 4331', '§ 1508', 'art 516', '§ 1133']

Wilderness Watch and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Plaintiffs-appellants, v. Fran P. Mainella, Director, National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior, Arthur Frederick, Superintendent, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Greyfield Inn Corp., Defendants-appellees, 375 F.3d 1085 (11th Cir. 2004) :: Justia
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Wilderness Watch and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Plaintiffs-appellants, v. Fran P. Mainella, Director, National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior, Arthur Frederick, Superintendent, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Greyfield Inn Corp., Defendants-appellees, 375 F.3d 1085 (11th Cir. 2004)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit - 375 F.3d 1085 (11th Cir. 2004)
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED Anne E. Mahle, Jonathan W. Dettmann, Richard A. Duncan, Brian B. O'Neill, Faegre & Benson, LLP, Minneapolis, MN, Donald D. Stack, Stack & Associates, PC, Atlanta, GA, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
We review de novo a grant of summary judgment, applying the same legal standards used by the district court. Shotz v. City of Plantation, 344 F.3d 1161, 1165 (11th Cir. 2003). The Administrative Procedure Act, which governs review of agency action, permits courts to set aside agency action when it is "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law." 5 U.S.C. § 706(2) (A).
The Park Service claimed that it needed motorized access to the historical areas in order to "meet [ ] its obligations to restore, maintain, preserve and curate the historic resources ... and permit visitor access and interpretation." R. at 4-46-559, 562. The Service also claimed that permitting tourists to "piggyback" along on Park Service personnel trips to these locations would yield "no net increase in impact," — that is, the number of trips and overall impact on the area would be no greater than if the Park Service were simply meeting its statutory obligations. Id. For the first two months, the Park Service used vehicles that held four passengers, but the agency soon acquired a fifteen-person van in order to accommodate larger numbers of visitors. The Park Service offered trips to Plum Orchard three times per week and to the Settlement once per month. Although the Park Service had not previously visited the sites on a regular schedule, the agency decided to establish a regular schedule in order to accommodate the transportation of visitors.6
We analyze the Park Service's interpretation of the statutory phrase "except as necessary to meet minimum requirements for the administration of the area" under the two-step analysis described in Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 104 S. Ct. 2778, 81 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1984), and clarified in United States v. Mead Corp., 533 U.S. 218, 121 S. Ct. 2164, 150 L. Ed. 2d 292 (2001). Under Chevron, we first ask whether congressional intent is clear, and if so, "that is the end of the matter; for the court, as well as the agency, must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress." 467 U.S. at 842-43, 104 S. Ct. 2778. We examine congressional intent through the plain language of the statute, understanding that "the words of a statute must be read in their context and with a view to their place in the overall statutory scheme." FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 529 U.S. 120, 133, 120 S. Ct. 1291, 146 L. Ed. 2d 121 (2000). If we find the statute silent or ambiguous, we defer to the agency interpretation "when it appears that Congress delegated authority to the agency generally to make rules carrying the force of law, and that the agency interpretation claiming deference was promulgated in the exercise of that authority." Mead Corp., 533 U.S. at 226-27, 121 S. Ct. 2164.7
As an initial matter, we cannot agree with the Park Service that the preservation of historical structures furthers the goals of the Wilderness Act. The Park Service's responsibilities for the historic preservation of Plum Orchard and the Settlement derive, not from the Wilderness Act, but rather from the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), 16 U.S.C. § 461, et seq. The NHPA requires agencies to "assume responsibility for the preservation of historic properties" they control. Id. at § 470h-2(a) (1). Plum Orchard and the historic district containing the Settlement have both been listed in the National Register of Historic Places,8 though the congressional reports and early Park Service reports only mention Plum Orchard (which itself lies outside the designated wilderness area).
The agency's obligations under the Wilderness Act are quite different. The Wilderness Act defines wilderness as "undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation." 16 U.S.C. § 1131(c). A wilderness area should "generally appear [ ] to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable." Id. Another section of the Act explicitly states that, except as necessary for minimal administrative needs that require occasional vehicle use, "there shall be ... no structure or installation within any such [wilderness] area." 16 U.S.C. § 1133(c). As the Park Service notes, Section 1133(b) mentions "historical use" along with "recreational, scenic, scientific, educational, [and] conservation" uses. However, this list tracks the definition of wilderness areas in § 1131(c), which describes "a primitive and unconfined type of recreation" and "ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value." 16 U.S.C. § 1131(c). Given the consistent evocation of "untrammeled" and "natural" areas, the previous pairing of "historical" with "ecological" and "geological" features, and the explicit prohibition on structures, the only reasonable reading of "historical use" in the Wilderness Act refers to natural, rather than man-made, features.
Of course, Congress may separately provide for the preservation of an existing historical structure within a wilderness area, as it has done through the NHPA. Congress wrote the wilderness rules and may create exceptions as it sees fit. Absent these explicit statutory instructions, however, the need to preserve historical structures may not be inferred from the Wilderness Act nor grafted onto its general purpose. Furthermore, any obligation the agency has under the NHPA to preserve these historical structures must be carried out so as to preserve the "wilderness character" of the area. See 16 U.S.C. § 1133(b) (" [E]ach agency administering any area designated as wilderness shall be responsible for preserving the wilderness character of the area and shall so administer such area for such other purposes for which it may have been established as also to preserve its wilderness character.")
This appeal turns not on the preservation of historical structures but on the decision to provide motorized public access to them across designated wilderness areas. The Wilderness Act bars the use of motor vehicles in these areas "except as necessary to meet minimum requirements for the administration of the area for the purpose of this chapter [the Wilderness Act]." 16 U.S.C. § 1133(c). The Park Service's decision to "administer" the Settlement using a fifteen-passenger van filled with tourists simply cannot be construed as "necessary" to meet the "minimum requirements" for administering the area "for the purpose of [the Wilderness Act]." 16 U.S.C. § 1133(c). The plain language of the statute contradicts the Park Service position. When interpreting the language of a statute, "we generally give the words used their ordinary meaning." Griffith v. United States (In re Griffith), 206 F.3d 1389, 1393 (11th Cir. 2000) (en banc) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). If these words are unambiguous, our inquiry is complete, for "we must presume that Congress said what it meant and meant what it said." CBS, Inc. v. PrimeTime 24 Joint Venture, 245 F.3d 1217, 1222 (11th Cir. 2001) (citation omitted). In no ordinary sense of the word can the transportation of fifteen people through wilderness area be "necessary" to administer the area for the purpose of the Wilderness Act.
Wilderness Watch also argues that, regardless of whether the Wilderness Act permitted these tours, the agency should have evaluated the environmental impact of its proposal through the written review procedures required by NEPA, 42 U.S.C. §§ 4331-35. NEPA essentially forces federal agencies to document the potential environmental impacts of significant decisions before they are made, thereby ensuring that environmental issues are considered by the agency and that important information is made available to the larger audience that may help to make the decision or will be affected by it. Robertson v. Methow Valley Citizens Council, 490 U.S. 332, 349, 109 S. Ct. 1835, 104 L. Ed. 2d 351 (1989). NEPA imposes procedural requirements rather than substantive results, and so long as an agency has taken a "hard look" at the environmental consequences, a reviewing court may not impose its preferred outcome on the agency. Fund for Animals, Inc. v. Rice, 85 F.3d 535, 546 (11th Cir. 1996).
Both parties agree that the Park Service did not document any formal NEPA review before its decision. The Park Service argues that its action qualified for a categorical exclusion from NEPA review, thus relieving the agency from the need to conduct any formal, written review. The Park Service directs our attention to regulations issued by the Council on Environmental Quality permitting each agency to identify categories of actions that "do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment and which have been found to have no such effect in procedures adopted by a Federal agency in implementation of these regulations ... and for which, therefore, neither an environmental assessment nor environmental impact statement is required." 40 C.F.R. § 1508.4. In its list of such categorical exclusions, the Department of the Interior has identified some eleven routine activities that do not require NEPA analysis. Dep't of the Interior, Department Manual, part 516, ch. 2, app. 1, 49 Fed. Reg. 21437 (May 21, 1984). In this case, the Park Service relies on the exclusion for " [r]outine and continuing government business, including such things as supervision, administration, operations, maintenance and replacement activities having limited context and intensity; e.g. limited size and magnitude or short-term effects." Id. at 21439 ¶ 1.8.
Wilderness Watch argues that the Park Service cannot invoke a categorical exclusion because there is no evidence that the agency determined that the exclusion applied at the time it agreed to transport visitors. In effect, Wilderness Watch accuses the agency of failing to consider the environmental impacts of its decision and then resorting to the exclusion as a post hoc rationalization. If true, " [t]his would frustrate the fundamental purpose of NEPA, which is to ensure that federal agencies take a `hard look' at the environmental consequences of their actions." California v. Norton, 311 F.3d 1162, 1175 (9th Cir. 2002) (discussing a similar allegation).
Moreover, in this case, we do not believe that the agency action falls within the categorical exclusion for "routine and continuing government business." Obtaining a large van to accommodate fifteen tourists hardly appears to be a "routine and continuing" form of administration and maintenance. Even assuming this exclusion applied, Interior Department regulations create exceptions to every categorical exclusion, several of which may be relevant here. Department Manual, 49 Fed.Reg. at 21439 App. 2. The regulations state that "environmental documents must be prepared for actions which may ... (2.2) Have adverse effects on ... wilderness areas ... (2.5) Establish a precedent for future action ... (2.10) Threaten to violate a federal ... law or requirement imposed for the protection of the environment." Id. at ¶¶ 2.2, 2.5, & 2.10 (emphasis added). Even crediting the agency's position that the van trips would have "no net increase in impact" on the wilderness area,11 mechanized passenger service through a wilderness area creates a potential "precedent for future action" and, as described above, the policy "threaten [s] to violate" the Wilderness Act. At a minimum, the agency should have recognized that these exceptions "may" apply. Courts of Appeals have, on occasion, reversed agency invocations of categorical exclusions that failed to consider the relevant Interior Department exceptions. See, e.g., California, 311 F.3d at 1176 (discussing the exceptions for adverse effects on threatened species, ecologically significant areas, and highly controversial environmental effects); Fund for Animals v. Babbitt, 89 F.3d 128, 133 (2d Cir. 1996) (reversing a finding of categorical exclusion because the program did not fit comfortably into any of the Interior Department categories and because the scheduled moose hunt would trigger the exception for activities that have "highly controversial environmental effects.").
The district court agreed that the agency had not made a proper determination that a categorical exclusion applied before making its decision. However, the court found that remanding for further NEPA review would be pointless given the agency's later statement in the Settlement MRD that there were no adverse environmental impacts. In our view, the inclusion of two conclusory sentences in the MRD several months after the tours had started does not represent the sort of "technical violation" of NEPA that could excuse non-compliance. NEPA imposes procedural requirements before decisions are made in order to ensure that those decisions take environmental consequences into account. Permitting an agency to avoid a NEPA violation through a subsequent, conclusory statement that it would not have reached a different result even with the proper analysis would significantly undermine the statutory scheme. Other circuits have only been willing to declare a NEPA violation harmless when the relevant decision makers actually engaged in significant environmental analysis prior to the decision but failed to comply with the exact procedures mandated. See, e.g., Save Our Heritage, Inc. v. FAA, 269 F.3d 49, 59-62 (1st Cir. 2001); Sierra Club v. Slater, 120 F.3d 623, 637 (6th Cir. 1997); Laguna Greenbelt, Inc. v. United States Dep't of Transp., 42 F.3d 517, 527 (9th Cir. 1994); Illinois Commerce Com'n v. ICC, 848 F.2d 1246, 1257 (D.C. Cir. 1988). That is not the case here. In the absence of evidence that an agency seriously considered environmental impacts prior to making its decision, violations of NEPA cannot be considered harmless.12
Neither "existing private rights" nor the exceptions "specifically provided for in this chapter" are relevant to this appeal See 16 U.S.C. § 1133(d) (describing the special exceptions for aircraft, motorboats, fire, insects, disease, mining and mineral activities, water resources, certain specific commercial services, and state jurisdiction over wildlife).
In September 2002, four months after this litigation commenced, the Park Service established boat service to Plum Orchard and discontinued land transportation of tourists to that site See R. at 6-63 (Cumberland Island National Seashore Policy Memorandum 2003-01) ("Henceforth, all tourist transport to Plum Orchard Mansion and historic grounds offered by CUIS shall be via boat. No motorized tours to the Mansion by Seashore personnel are authorized."). The district court concluded that this rendered moot the claims relating solely to Plum Orchard. We note that the party asserting mootness bears "the heavy burden of persuading the court that the challenged conduct cannot reasonably be expected to start up again." Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Slater, 528 U.S. 216, 222, 120 S. Ct. 722, 145 L. Ed. 2d 650 (2000) (internal punctuation marks omitted). We have also stated previously that the "mere voluntary cessation of a challenged practice" does not render a claim moot, because the party could simply resume the practice following the conclusion of litigation. Jews for Jesus, Inc. v. Hillsborough County Aviation Auth., 162 F.3d 627, 629 (11th Cir. 1998).
Because we hold that the Wilderness Act speaks directly to the question at issue, we need not resolve the question of the precise level of deference due the agency action under the second prong of Chevron. We note, however, that when, as here, the agency interpretation does not constitute the exercise of its formal rule-making authority, we accord the agency consideration based upon the factors cited in Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134, 65 S. Ct. 161, 89 L. Ed. 124 (1944): "the thoroughness evident in [the agency's] consideration, the validity of its reasoning, its consistency with earlier and later pronouncements, and all those factors which give it power to persuade, if lacking power to control." Id. at 140, 65 S. Ct. 161. See also Mead Corp., 533 U.S. at 228, 121 S. Ct. 2164 (listing these factors and citing Skidmore).
Common sense is the most fundamental guide to statutory construction Tug Allie-B, Inc. v. United States, 273 F.3d 936, 948 (11th Cir. 2001).
Edmonds Institute v. Babbitt, 42 F. Supp. 2d 1, 18 n. 11 (D.D.C. 1999).