Opinion ID: 751671
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Plaintiffs' NEPA Claim

Text: 37 According to NEC, the Secretaries' failure to complete a programmatic EIS for the POC program is a final agency action subject to judicial review under the APA. NEC contends that the POC program is analogous to other federal, interregional disease control and timber management programs for which the FS and BLM have prepared programmatic EISs. Since the agencies determined that an EIS was not required for the POC program and the agencies' site-specific EISs merely refer to the larger POC program as providing guidance for dealing with the POC fungus disease problem, NEC believes that the Secretaries' POC program will effectively circumvent the requirements of NEPA. Thus, NEC claims that the agencies have effectively shielded their POC program from NEPA's EIS requirement for major federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. 38 The Secretaries, on the other hand, characterize their POC related activities as mere preliminary research and development efforts, unreviewable under the APA because the activities are not final agency actions. They contend that neither the FS Action Plan nor the BLM Management Guidelines are proposals for major federal action significantly affecting the environment. In support, the Secretaries assert that these documents are merely research, development, and information-gathering tool[s] intended to lay the groundwork for later decision making. They further argue that these documents were circulated for informational purposes only and neither require nor call for any specific actions. The Secretaries conclude that since the POC program and the individual activities comprising the program do not call for the commitment of resources, NEPA's EIS requirement is not triggered. 39 Agreeing with the Secretaries, the district court found that the POC Program itself was not a final agency action subject to review and that even if the Action Plan and Guidelines constituted final agency actions, individually, they did not trigger NEPA's requirement to prepare an EIS because they were not major federal actions significantly affecting the environment. The district court correctly determined that the reasonableness standard should apply because the issues before the court were primarily legal issues. 40 The district court found that the POC Program (the collective POC activities of defendants referred to by plaintiffs as the POC Program) was not a final agency action and, thus, not subject to review. First, the court noted that Section 704 of the APA provides that [a]gency action made reviewable by statute and final agency action for which there is no adequate remedy in a court are subject to judicial review. 5 U.S.C. § 704. Noting that no specific statute authorized review, the district court determined that the plaintiffs must establish that the POC Program was a final agency action within the meaning of the APA. Relying primarily on Lujan v. National Wildlife Federation, 497 U.S. 871, 110 S.Ct. 3177, 111 L.Ed.2d 695 (1990), the district court found that none of the various activities, referred to as the POC Program, could be characterized as an agency action much less a final agency action. 41 Section 10(a) of the APA, 5 U.S.C. § 702, provides for judicial review of agency actions if two requirements are met. National Wildlife Fed'n, 497 U.S. at 882, 110 S.Ct. at 3185. First, the claimants must identify an agency action. Id. Agency action includes the failure to act. Id. citing 5 U.S.C. § 551(13). Where, as here, the review is sought under the general review provisions of the APA the agency action must be final agency action. Id. citing 5 U.S.C. § 704. Second, the plaintiffs must establish they have suffered a legal wrong, or will be adversely affected or aggrieved within the meaning of a relevant statute. Id. at 883, 110 S.Ct. at 3186. Only the first requirement is at issue here. 42 NEPA requires federal agencies to prepare an EIS for every recommendation or report on proposals for legislation and other major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. 42 U.S.C. § 4332(2)(C). Thus, NEPA places three requirements on actions subject to its procedures. The action must (1) be federal, (2) major, and (3) have a significant environmental impact. An EIS is not necessary where a proposed federal action would not change the status quo. National Wildlife Federation v. Espy, 45 F.3d 1337, 1343 (9th Cir.1995), citing Upper Snake River v. Hodel, 921 F.2d 232, 235 (9th Cir.1990). 43 In many ways, a programmatic EIS is superior to a limited, contract-specific EIS because it examines an entire policy initiative rather than performing a piecemeal analysis within the structure of a single agency action. Ass'n of Pub. Agency Customers v. Bonneville Power Administration, 126 F.3d 1158, 1184 (9th Cir.1997). However, NEPA does not require an agency to consider the environmental effects that speculative or hypothetical projects might have on a proposed project. See Kleppe v. Sierra Club, 427 U.S. 390, 96 S.Ct. 2718, 49 L.Ed.2d 576 (1976) (Finding NEPA inapplicable to a series of studies on the impact of resource development activities in the Northern Great Plains because they were meant only to gain background environmental information for subsequent application in the decision making process with respect to individual coal-related projects.). Long-range aims are quite different from concrete plans and specific undertakings such as the FS's Land and Resource Management Plans and the BLM's Resource Management Plans which the Secretaries have submitted for purposes of environmental analysis under NEPA. See Id. NEPA does not require an agency to consider the environmental effects that speculative or hypothetical projects might have on a proposed project. Id. 44 With respect to NEPA, National Wildlife Federation is the seminal case for purposes of resolving the inter-related issues of ripeness and final agency action. 497 U.S. 871, 110 S.Ct. 3177, 111 L.Ed.2d 695. In National Wildlife Federation, plaintiffs challenged the BLM's land withdrawal review program, claiming the BLM violated NEPA by failing to provide an EIS for the program. Unable to find concrete effects required for APA review, the Court stated: the term land withdrawal review program (which as far as we know is not derived from any authoritative text) 2 does not refer to a single BLM order or regulation, or even to a completed universe of particular BLM orders and regulations. Id. at 890-91, 110 S.Ct. at 3189. The Court found that, although frustrating for plaintiffs, a case-by-case approach was necessary to attack broad ill-defined programs that do not cause concrete effects. Id. at 894, 110 S.Ct. at 3191-92. Continuing, the Court found the BLM program was not ripe for judicial review until the scope of the controversy has been reduced to more manageable proportions, and its factual components fleshed out, by some concrete action applying the regulation to the claimant's situation in a fashion that harms or threatens to harm him. Id. at 891, 110 S.Ct. at 3190. 45 NEC argues that Lujan and Kleppe are inapposite here because the POC program is more than just a broad program with general application. They claim the POC program is a region-wide program that calls for specific control strategies and mitigation measures. NEC cites to two Ninth Circuit cases, Idaho Conservation League v. Mumma, 956 F.2d 1508 (9th Cir.1992), and Salmon River Concerned Citizens v. Robertson, 32 F.3d 1346 (9th Cir.1994), in support of its proposition that it may challenge the overall POC plan and is not limited to challenging site-specific actions. 46 In Idaho Conservation League v. Mumma, 956 F.2d 1508 (9th Cir.1992), an environmental group challenged the FS's plan for managing over two million acres of the Idaho Panhandle Forest and the plan's accompanying EIS as violating NEPA. Distinguishing Idaho from National Wildlife Federation, the court stated that the fundamental difference [between the two cases] is that the [plaintiff] is not challenging an entire program ... but rather their implementation in a particular instance. Id. at 1519. Since the decision complained of related to a specific plan to utilize the Idaho Panhandle Forest the agency action was clear and final. Id. Thus, the suit was found ripe for review. Id. 47 In Salmon River, a citizens group sought review of a Forest Service reforestation program which proposed extensive use of herbicides. 32 F.3d at 1348-51. There, the Forest Service argued that a challenge to the impact statement would not be ripe until the Forest Service authorized a specific herbicide application. Id. at 1355. Relying on Idaho Conservation League v. Mumma, the Salmon River court rejected the Forest Service's position to the extent the impact statement set guidelines for future herbicide applications. Id. However, unlike National Wildlife Federation, the Forest Service treated the reforestation program as a discrete agency action. 48 Although our decisions in Idaho Conservation and Salmon River support NEC's contention that plaintiffs need not wait to challenge a specific project when their grievance is with an overall plan, those decisions are distinguishable from the present case. Neither of those cases involved threshold decisions of NEPA applicability. In both of those cases, NEPA challenges were brought to EISs already prepared for specific FS forest plans. See Salmon River, 32 F.3d at 1355 (Plaintiffs' NEPA challenge to a Forest Service reforestation plan providing for herbicide applications was reviewable before the Agency authorized a specific herbicide application because the plan called for discrete agency action.) and Idaho Conservation, 956 F.2d at 1519 (Deciding the case was ripe for adjudication because plaintiffs were not challenging an entire program, or 'rules of general applicability,' ... but rather their implementation in a particular instance.). 49 Although it is a close call, we think the situation here is more analogous to that found in National Wildlife Federation and Kleppe. The district court properly recognized that none of the activities allegedly comprising the POC Program had an actual or immediately threatened effect as required by Lujan, 497 U.S. at 894, 110 S.Ct. at 3191. Moreover, the district court correctly decided that the defendants reasonably found that neither the FS POC Action Plan nor the BLM Management Guidelines significantly affect the quality of the human environment. The FS Action Plan's Action Items/Objectives section does not create activities which impact the physical environment. Rather, the Action Items/Objectives set forth guidelines and goals for POC research, management strategies and information sharing. They do not provide for specific activities with a direct impact on POC. Similarly, BLM's POC Management Guidelines provide management strategies and goals for dealing with POC preservation and timber sales on BLM managed land. The Guidelines neither propose any site-specific activity nor do they call for specific actions directly impacting the physical environment. Therefore, we find the Secretaries reasonably decided that an EIS was not required for their POC management programs. 50 We share NEC's concern that agencies conduct full NEPA analysis when specific POC management plans are implemented or proposed. However, we do not believe the current POC programs call for specific enough action to trigger NEPA's procedural requirements nor do we believe that the catch-22 argument, advanced by NEC, prevents effective review of agency actions effecting POC. There is no reason plaintiffs cannot challenge the sufficiency of an agency EIS when a discrete agency action is called for. The agencies will be unable to shield their POC program from NEPA review because they will not be able to avail themselves of the Council on Environmental Quality's tiering provision. 40 C.F.R. § 1502.20 (Agencies are encouraged to tier their environmental impact statements to eliminate repetitive discussions and to focus on the actual issues ripe for decision at each level of environmental review.) Although CEQ procedures allow agencies to incorporate by reference certain materials to cut down on the bulk of an EIS, they cannot tier their site-specific EISs to the broader POC program where the program itself has not been subject to NEPA procedures. See 40 C.F.R. §§ 1502.20-21. Furthermore, the Secretaries have stated their intentions to prepare an EIS when they propose to implement particular control strategies with environmental impacts. As we stated in Salmon River, judicial estoppel will prevent the Secretaries from arguing they have no further duty to consider their POC management policies when site-specific programs are challenged. 32 F.3d at 1357-58. We assume that government agencies will ... comply with their NEPA obligations in later stages of development. Id. at 1358 (internal quotation omitted).