Opinion ID: 186599
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Impact on Air Quality

Text: 34 As for the substance of BIA's NEPA analysis, TOMAC focuses its complaint on BIA's decision not to address in detail the gaming resort's potential impact on air quality under the impending 8-hour ozone NAAQS. TOMAC contends, and BIA concedes, that the agency was aware at the time of the preparation of its EA and EA Supplement that Berrien County was likely to move from attainment to nonattainment under the CAA. See EA, supra, at 25, J.A. 337. TOMAC argues that the agency's failure to act on this knowledge contradicts the District Court's finding that BIA took the requisite hard look at the environmental impact, undermines BIA's FONSI, and should result in a court-ordered EIS. 35 This claim fails, however, because Berrien County's nonattainment designation was made long after the EA and EA Supplement were completed. The EA was released in January 2001 and the EA Supplement was completed in August 2003. Berrien County was not designated nonattainment, however, until June 15, 2004. See 8-Hour Standards, 69 Fed.Reg. at 23,910. TOMAC points to nothing in NEPA itself or its implementing regulations that suggests that a supplement to an EA or FONSI is required when new information potentially affecting the federal action in question is released. Supplementation is only required under NEPA implementing regulations in the context of an EIS. See 40 C.F.R. § 1502.9(c)(1)(ii) (2005) (stating that agencies [s]hall prepare supplements to either draft or final environmental impact statements if. . . . [t]here are significant new circumstances or information relevant to environmental concerns and bearing on the proposed action or its impacts). Furthermore, TOMAC does not assert that the construction of the facility itself would push the area into nonattainment. See 40 C.F.R. § 1508.27(b)(10). Therefore, even if we were to import § 1502.9(c)(1)(ii)'s requirement into the EA context, it is not clear that a pre-project nonattainment designation qualifies as a significant new circumstance for the purposes of determining the project's effect on the area's air quality. 36 As the District Court noted, reassessments must end at some point, or NEPA simply becomes a tool to stall new projects indefinitely, `render[ing] agency decisionmaking intractable, always awaiting updated information only to find the new information outdated by the time a decision is made.' TOMAC III, 2005 WL 2375171, at  (quoting Marsh v. Or. Natural Res. Council, 490 U.S. 360, 373, 109 S.Ct. 1851, 104 L.Ed.2d 377 (1989)) (alteration in TOMAC III ). BIA undertook an extensive analysis of the air quality impacts likely to occur based on the regime with which it was faced, which is all that can reasonably be expected. 37 It is also noteworthy that BIA's failure to address potential nonattainment in the EA and EA Supplement does not mean that the post-analysis nonattainment designation will go unexamined. The CAA, and not NEPA, is the primary force guiding states and localities into NAAQS compliance. As intervenors note, under the CAA, the State of Michigan is required to comply with EPA regulations governing attainment status. A nonattainment designation will likely require the State's own assessment — a conformity analysis — of how Berrien County will gain compliance. See 42 U.S.C. § 7506(c). 38 The other pieces of BIA's air quality analysis are thorough and reasonably conducted. The Bureau's choice to model primarily for carbon monoxide was reasonable, given that carbon monoxide is the most likely priority pollutant to have a significant impact on air quality. EPA also concurred with BIA's use of carbon monoxide as a screening tool. See Public Comment Period & Responses to Comments at 15, EA, supra, at app. U, J.A. 627. 39 Finally, there is nothing to indicate that BIA's approach to non-carbon monoxide impacts was other than sensible. The Bureau concluded that [d]ue to the regional nature of ozone, hydrocarbon, and nitrogen oxide air quality concerns, meaningful evaluation of these pollutants on a project-by-project basis is not practical. EA Supplement, supra, at 48, J.A. 825. Ozone close to ground level, for example, can be transported long distances . . . impacting air quality downwind of the area of formation. SME Supplementary Report, supra, at 8, J.A. 1113. In this case, given that most of the ozone in western Michigan is attributable to transportation impacts from upwind cities such as Gary, Chicago, and Milwaukee, BIA reasonably determined that the traffic augmentation in Berrien County would not significantly contribute to ozone levels in the area. 40 The Bureau's thorough analysis of the conditions existing at the time of its examinations demonstrates clearly that it took a hard look at the project's potential direct and indirect impacts on local air quality. BIA was under no obligation to hypothesize about future regulations. The agency's handling of the gaming resort's potential impact on air quality was neither arbitrary and capricious, nor an abuse of its discretion.