Opinion ID: 457075
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Negative Environmental Declaration vs. EIS

Text: 23 At the heart of this appeal lies the issue of whether the appellees properly concluded that the I-35W project, as including the Overhead, could be processed with a Negative Environmental Declaration rather than an EIS. 24 The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. Secs. 4321-4361 (1982), requires the federal agency that is contemplating undertaking a major Federal action[ ] significantly affecting the quality of the human environment to prepare an EIS before the project is commenced. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 4332(2)(C). 9 Preparing the EIS requires the agency to conduct an exhaustive environmental review of the impacts of the proposed action, including those that are either unavoidable or irreversible, consider viable alternatives to the contemplated project, mitigate to the fullest extent possible harmful effects to the environment, enlist the advice of and comments from other agencies possessing expertise in areas relevant to the project under consideration, ensure through detailed notice and hearing procedures that members of the public may participate actively and in a meaningful manner in the decisionmaking process, and determine whether the proposed project should be completed as planned based upon a balanced consideration of all of the interests involved. Id. 23 C.F.R. Secs. 771.105, 771.111, 771.123 & 771.125 (1985). 25 NEPA operates to prevent a federal agency from taking any major action before that agency has considered the environmental effects of that action. See H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 765, 91st Cong. 1st Sess. (1969), reprinted in 1969 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 2751, 2756, 2757 & 2771. See also S.Rep. No. 296, 91st Cong. 1st Sess. (1969); H.R.Rep. No. 378, 91st Cong. 1st Sess. (1969). The preeminent purposes of the process are to cause federal agencies to take a hard look at the environmental consequences of a proposed project, consider viable alternatives to the method chosen to achieve the aims of the project, and endeavor to minimize adverse environmental consequences of the proposal. See, e.g., Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. v. Natural Resource Defense Council, 462 U.S. 87, 98, 103 S.Ct. 2246, 2253, 76 L.Ed.2d 437 (1983); Vieux Carre Property Owners, Residents and Associates, Inc. v. Pierce, 719 F.2d 1272, 1281 (5th Cir.1983); Save Our Wetlands, Inc. v. Sands, 711 F.2d 634, 642 (5th Cir.1983). 26 Quite understandably, however, not all federal projects require authorities to prepare an EIS. For example, an EIS need not be filed for a project that neither is major nor significantly affect[s] the quality of the human environment. 10 Citizens for a Better St. Clair County v. James, 648 F.2d 246, 249 & 250 (5th Cir.1981); Save the Bay, Inc. v. United States Corps of Engineers, 610 F.2d 322, 326 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 900, 101 S.Ct. 269, 66 L.Ed.2d 130 (1980); Sierra Club v. Hassell, 636 F.2d 1095, 1097 (5th Cir.1981); Columbia Basin Land Protection Association v. Schlesinger, 643 F.2d 585, 597 (9th Cir.1981). In Louisiana v. Lee, 758 F.2d 1081 (5th Cir.1985), we recently re-emphasized the appropriate test for reviewing the propriety of an agency's decision not to prepare an EIS: 27 Judicial review of an agency's decision not to file an environmental impact statement is governed by the rule of reasonableness. The standard of judicial review is whether the agency decision not to develop an impact statement is reasonable and made objectively and ... in good faith on a reviewable environmental record. If the decision is reasonable, 'the determination must be upheld.'  28 Id. at 1083 (quoting Save Our Wetlands, 711 F.2d at 644). Under this standard the court must determine 29 whether the plaintiff has alleged facts which, if true, show that the recommended project would materially degrade any aspect of environmental quality. 30