Opinion ID: 3047681
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Disclosure of Scientific Viewpoints

Text: The Navajo Appellants claim that the Forest Service failed to discuss and consider adequately the scientific viewpoint of Dr. Paul Torrence. Dr. Torrence criticized the draft EIS for approving the proposal despite the risks posed by endocrinedisrupting chemicals present in treated sewage effluent. [23] Regulations require an agency preparing an FEIS to “assess and consider comments both individually and collectively,” to respond to the comments, and to state its responses NAVAJO NATION v. USFS 2891 in the FEIS. 40 C.F.R. § 1503.4(a). Although the agency need not “set forth at full length the views with which it disagrees,” Block, 690 F.2d at 773, the agency must “discuss at appropriate points in the [FEIS] any responsible opposing view which was not adequately discussed in the draft statement.” 40 C.F.R. § 1502.9(b). Ordinarily, the agency must attach to the FEIS “all substantive comments . . . whether or not the comment is thought to merit individual discussion.” Id. § 1503.4(b). However, if comments have been “exceptionally voluminous,” summaries suffice. Id. Under some circumstances, an agency’s response to a comment need not be given in the main body of the FEIS and may instead be contained in a separate “comments and responses” section. Those circumstances arise when “many of the critical comments prompted revisions in the body, [the agency] discussed in the body all of the environmental problems to which the comments were addressed, and [the agency] provided thoughtful and well-reasoned responses to most of the critical comments.” Ore. Natural Res. Council v. Marsh, 832 F.2d 1489, 1498-99 (9th Cir. 1987) (as amended), rev’d on other grounds, 490 U.S. 360 (1989). In Center for Biological Diversity, we held that an FEIS was inadequate because it failed “to disclose responsible scientific opposition to the conclusion upon which it [was] based.” 349 F.3d at 1160. The FEIS in that case evaluated amendments to a forest management plan, prompted by the need to protect the habitat of the northern goshawk. Id. at 1160-61. The alternatives evaluated were all based upon the scientific conclusion that the birds were “habitat generalists.” Id. at 1160. The agency received comments from multiple federal and state agencies citing studies indicating that the birds were not habitat generalists, and that therefore the proposed plans would be inadequate. Id. at 1162-63. The agency responded to the comments directly via letter, but did not disclose or respond to them specifically in the FEIS. Id. at 116162. Rather, the FEIS merely acknowledged in a summary comment that “[a] few commenters expressed concern that the 2892 NAVAJO NATION v. USFS proposed standards and guidelines for the . . . northern goshawk are grossly inadequate to protect the birds,” and responded that “[t]he guidelines have been developed over several years using the best information and scientific review available” and could “easily be updated through future amendments.” Id. at 1163 (alterations in original, quotation marks omitted). We held that the Forest Service was required to disclose and respond to the comments in the FEIS itself, because the comments were undisputedly “responsible opposing scientific viewpoints,” and because the FEIS’s recommendations undisputedly “rest[ed] upon the Service’s habitat generalist conclusion.” Id. at 1167. The FEIS in this case is unlike the FEIS in Center for Biological Diversity. The comments of Dr. Torrence alleged by Appellants to have been inadequately treated in the FEIS do not represent an undisclosed opposing viewpoint to which the Forest Service failed to respond openly in the FEIS. Appellants object to the district court’s characterization of Dr. Torrence’s comments as “all . . . variations of the same allegation: that the agency failed to fully consider the range of implications of endocrine disruptors.” 408 F. Supp.2d at 877. They assert that Dr. Torrence’s comments raise a broader set of issues that the FEIS fails to disclose and discuss. Yet the district court’s characterization is accurate because Dr. Torrence’s comments all concern endocrine disruptors. [24] The FEIS discloses, discusses, and responds to the substance of Dr. Torrence’s comments. The main body of the FEIS contains a subsection on endocrine disruptors that cites a range of research and discusses the growing scientific and governmental concern about their effects on wildlife, humans, and the environment. The FEIS also discloses and discusses studies done on endocrine disruptors in the treated sewage effluent proposed for use in this case. The FEIS contains a table listing the amounts of suspected disruptors measured in the water and briefly summarizes a study of its effect on various animals in experiments conducted by a Northern Arizona NAVAJO NATION v. USFS 2893 University professor, Dr. Catherine Propper. The FEIS comments that the concentrations of the suspected endocrine disruptors are significantly lower in the Rio de Flag water than in other waste water also measured in the study, and that “the proposed use of reclaimed water for snowmaking . . . will not result in comparable environmental exposure as investigated by Dr. Propper.” Thus, although the FEIS takes a more sanguine view of the risk than does Dr. Torrence, the main body of the FEIS discloses to the public, and makes clear that the Forest Service considered, the risk posed by endocrine disruptors.