Opinion ID: 456186
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Environmental-Impact-Statement Claim

Text: 26 As a second ground for preliminarily enjoining the Corps from removing the Bridge, the district court held that plaintiffs had shown a likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that the DEIS and FEIS did not adequately explore the effects of severing the Bridge without obtaining prior assurances of its replacement. Again we disagree. 27 By its enactment of NEPA, Congress has required all federal agencies to include in every recommendation or report on proposals for legislation and other major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment, a detailed statement by the responsible official on ... the environmental impact of the proposed action. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 4332(C)(i) (1982). An agency charged with preparing such an environmental impact statement (EIS) must demonstrate that it has taken a  'hard look' at [the] environmental consequences of the project. Kleppe v. Sierra Club, 427 U.S. 390, 410 n. 21, 96 S.Ct. 2718, 2730 n. 21, 49 L.Ed.2d 576 (1976). Where the agency has failed to take such a hard look, a court may enjoin it from pursuing the project until an appropriate EIS is prepared. Sierra Club v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, 701 F.2d 1011, 1030-31 (2d Cir.1983); Chelsea Neighborhood Association v. United States Postal Service, 516 F.2d 378, 387-89 (2d Cir.1975). The responsibility of a reviewing court under NEPA is only to satisfy itself that the correct procedures have been followed [by the agency] in arriving at the decision under review, Monroe County Conservation Council v. Adams, 566 F.2d 419, 422 (2d Cir.1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 1006, 98 S.Ct. 1876, 56 L.Ed.2d 388 (1978); the court cannot ' interject itself within the area of discretion of the executive as to the choice of the action to be taken, '  Strycker's Bay Neighborhood Council, Inc. v. Karlen, 444 U.S. 223, 227-28, 100 S.Ct. 497, 499-500, 62 L.Ed.2d 433 (1980) (per curiam) (quoting Kleppe v. Sierra Club, 427 U.S. at 410 n. 21, 96 S.Ct. at 2730 n. 21 (quoting Natural Resources Defense Council v. Morton, 458 F.2d 827, 838 (D.C.Cir.1972) (footnote omitted))). 28 Plaintiffs alleged, and the district court held, that [n]owhere in the FEIS is the decision-maker advised of the environmental impacts which will occur if the bridge is severed and never replaced. This conclusion is insupportable. The FEIS discusses numerous environmental effects of removing and not replacing the Bridge, including the cost of rerouting traffic (FEIS at 3); the effects on development (id. at 42, 44-45); the effects on property values, property tax revenues, and the cost of public services (id. at 46); and the effect on sales tax revenues (id. at 47). Further, GDM-1, which was attached to the FEIS, extensively discusses the impact of bridge removal without replacement, covering the effects on, inter alia, topography, sediment quality, air quality, water quality, fisheries, flooding, noise, displacement of people, community growth, recreational resources, and transportation. (GDM-1, at 65-B to 88.) 29 Plaintiffs contend that despite this extensive discussion of the severance alternative in the FEIS and GDM-1, the FEIS was nevertheless deficient because it failed to quantify the dollar value of the impact on traffic problems entailed by adoption of that alternative. NEPA, however, does not require that all impacts be discussed in exhaustive detail but only that the EIS furnish such information as appears to be reasonably necessary under the circumstances for the evaluation of the project. See County of Suffolk v. Secretary of the Interior, 562 F.2d 1368, 1374-78 (2d Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1064, 98 S.Ct. 1238, 55 L.Ed.2d 764 (1978); Natural Resources Defense Council v. Callaway, 524 F.2d 79, 88 (2d Cir.1975); see also Citizens for Balanced Environment and Transportation, Inc. v. Volpe, 650 F.2d 455, 460 (2d Cir.1981). The FEIS concludes that if the Bridge were permanently removed, highway traffic could be rerouted without any significant monetary disbenefits. (FEIS at 3.) While plaintiffs have complained of their own not insignificant personal inconvenience, they have offered no evidence that this conclusion as to the overall economic disbenefits to the region was reached after inadequate consideration, and the record before us, including the FEIS and GDM-1 discussions cited above, does not suggest that plaintiffs are likely to prove that the Corps did not consider all of the environmental factors involved. 30 In sum, we conclude that the district court erred in holding that plaintiffs had shown a likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that the DEIS and FEIS did not reflect adequate consideration by the Corps of the impact of removing and not replacing the bridge.