Opinion ID: 520659
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: sylvester's contentions

Text: 26 Sylvester makes four arguments to which we should respond. 27 The first addresses the deference to which the Corps' regulations are entitled. Sylvester insists that while Chevron may require a court to give controlling weight to an agency's construction of a statute that it administers, see 467 U.S. at 844, 104 S.Ct. at 2782, a court does not have to give deference to an agency's interpretation of a statute outside of its administrative ken. See Parola v. Weinberger, 848 F.2d 956, 959 (9th Cir.1988). Therefore, Sylvester argues, this court owes no deference to the Corps' NEPA regulations because the Corps does not administer the NEPA. True, but this argument misses the mark. It ignores the role of the EPA and the CEQ. As the Federal Defendants point out, the CAA requires the EPA to review the Corps' regulations and designates the CEQ as the arbitrator in disputes between federal agencies on environmental issues. See 42 U.S.C. Sec. 7609(a)-(b). This is not done as an idle exercise. It is to provide guidance to all who may be concerned, including courts. Thus, even though the Corps actually promulgated the regulations, we believe that the principles underlying Chevron entitle them to, and require us to extend, deference. 28 Second, Sylvester argues that the Corps' regulations are contrary to Congress' clear intention. The NEPA requires agencies to comply with its mandates to the fullest extent possible. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 4332 (1982). Congress explained that this means that no agency may utilize an excessively narrow construction of its existing statutory authorizations to avoid compliance. H.R. Conf.Rep. No. 91-765, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. 10, reprinted in 1969 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 2751, 2767, 2770. Even expansive language has some limits. These statements cannot expand the areas over which the Corps may exercise control and responsibility beyond its statutory authority. Mindful of this positive restraint, we find that the Corps' regulations fixing the scope of its NEPA analysis strike an acceptable balance between the needs of the NEPA and the Corps' jurisdictional limitations. 29 Third, Sylvester charges that the present regulations are entitled to little deference because they conflict with the Corps' previous regulations. The alleged conflict is said to be between Sec. 7b(1) and Sec. 7b(2). The Corps' previous regulations contained the language now set forth in Sec. 7b(1) but not that in Sec. 7b(2). See 53 Fed.Reg. at 3135 (to be codified at 33 C.F.R. Part 325, App. B). Thus, the previous regulations, Sylvester argues, did not restrict the Corps' authority to consider entire projects to the extent that is now done by the present regulations. See 45 Fed.Reg. 56760, 56779 (1980) (presently codified at 33 C.F.R. Part 230, App. B, Sec. 8(a) (1987)). However, under Mesa Verde Construction Co. v. Northern California District Council of Laborers, 861 F.2d 1124, 1134 (9th Cir.1988) (en banc), this court will defer to an agency's interpretation of a statute, if reasonable, even though the agency previously interpreted the statute differently. 30 Fourth, Sylvester argues that the Corps' regulations conflict with the CEQ's regulations. The CEQ's regulations provide that in deciding whether to prepare an EIS, an agency must consider significant indirect effects, including growth inducing effects and other effects relating to induced changes in the pattern of land use, population density or growth rate. 40 C.F.R. Sec. 1508.8(b) (1987). The regulations provide further that an agency cannot avoid finding significant indirect effects by breaking [an action] down into small component parts. Id. Sec. 1508.27(b)(7). The regulations also explain that the cumulative impact of a project consists of the incremental impact of the action when added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future action regardless of what agency (Federal or non-Federal) or person undertakes such other actions. Id. Sec. 1508.7. 31 Environmental impacts are in some respects like ripples following the casting of a stone in a pool. The simile is beguiling but useless as a standard. So employed it suggests that the entire pool must be considered each time a substance heavier than a hair lands upon its surface. This is not a practical guide. A better image is that of scattered bits of a broken chain, some segments of which contain numerous links, while others have only one or two. Each segment stands alone, but each link within each segment does not. 32 Drawing our inspiration from this image, we find no conflict in the regulations as applied in this case. Consistent with both its own regulations and the CEQ's regulations, the Corps did analyze the secondary and cumulative impacts of the golf course, but concluded that these impacts did not include the other resort facilities. As we explain below, we cannot find that the golf course and the rest of the resort are two links of a single chain that require the Corps to look further than it did.