Opinion ID: 164789
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Harm to Plaintiffs, Balancing of Harm to Defendants, and Public Interest

Text: 29 Plaintiffs contend that the district court never addressed the remaining equitable factors bearing on the issuance of injunctive relief. Aplts' Br. at 48. However, while the district court did address the Plaintiffs' likelihood of success on the merits in greater detail than the other three factors, it nevertheless concluded that Plaintiffs have met none of the requirements for a preliminary injunction. Valley Cmty. II, 246 F.Supp.2d at 1177. We now examine the equitable factors and hold that while the Plaintiffs may suffer some harm as a result of the denial of the injunction, the district court correctly concluded that the balance of harms and the public interest weigh in favor of the FHWA.
30 The substantive harm contemplated by § 4(f) is the actual harm to parkland or historic sites that will occur if the Secretary of Transportation does not (1) consider every prudent and feasible alternative to using the land, and (2) make all possible plans to minimize the harm, if use is required. Davis, 302 F.3d at 1115. Environmental harm is, by its nature, generally irreparable. Id. An individual plaintiff can establish that he or she will suffer harm from a construction project by demonstrating adequate proximity to and use of the land in question. Id. The Plaintiffs have certainly established adequate proximity in this case. Plaintiffs live in the area and use the land in question; in fact, many of the historic acequias at issue in this case are actually located on land owned by the Plaintiffs. Any damage to the land or structures along U.S. 70 as a result of the project is likely to cause the Plaintiffs irreparable harm. Moreover, even assuming that the FHWA's determination that the project will not use any protected properties is correct, the Plaintiffs' enjoyment of their land will undoubtedly suffer somewhat as a result of the greater proximity of a major highway.
31 The FHWA has already invested a substantial amount of money in this construction project. Over $52 million was invested between August 1, 2002, and February 12, 2003. According to a declaration by the NMSHTD's Design Compliance Engineer for the Hondo Valley Project, a suspension of construction would cost $144,000 per day, or $4,320,000 per month. A permanent termination of the project would cost $11,537,000, including demobilization and clean-up costs. Given these figures, it is clear that the FHWA will suffer significant financial harm if the injunction is granted. 32 While these costs cannot be ignored, financial concerns alone generally do not outweigh environmental harm. See Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, Inc., 401 U.S. at 412-13, 91 S.Ct. 814 (Congress clearly did not intend that cost and disruption of the community were to be ignored by the Secretary. But the very existence of the statutes [i.e., Section 4(f)] indicates that protection of parkland was to be given paramount importance.). We have previously accorded less weight to financial harms relative to environmental harms when the financial harms are self-inflicted. See Davis, 302 F.3d at 1116 (noting that it appears that many of these costs [of delay] may be self-inflicted .... [because] the state entities involved in this case have `jumped the gun' on the environmental issues by entering into contractual obligations that anticipated a pro forma result.). 33 Whether the financial harm the FHWA will suffer if the injunction is granted outweighs the harm the Plaintiffs will suffer if it is not seems to turn on the merits of the case. If the FHWA did not comply with Section 4(f), but rather jumped the gun and began construction before completing the necessary environmental reviews, then the environmental harm faced by the plaintiffs may outweigh the FHWA's financial harm. If the FHWA complied with all relevant environmental laws and correctly determined that the project will not use a Section 4(f)-protected property, then the balancing of harms weighs in favor of the defendants. The Plaintiffs have not, therefore, established that the balancing of the harms tips strongly in their favor.
34 There are conflicting public interest values at play in this case. On the one hand, the public interest is served by safer highways and increased economic development. On the other hand, the public interest is served by strict compliance with environmental laws and the preservation of historic and cultural resources. In Davis v. Mineta, we held that the public interest associated with completion of the Project must yield to the obligation to construct the Project in compliance with the relevant environmental laws. 302 F.3d at 1116. However, in that case, the proposed highway construction ha[d] not yet begun, and so we [we]re not confronted with equities in favor of completion of a partially-completed project. Id. In this case, we are dealing with a partially-completed project, and as such, the public interest in favor of continuing the project is much stronger. This litigation also involves a stretch of road with an exceedingly high accident rate. The well-recognized important public interest in safety on the roads and highways, Dixon v. Love, 431 U.S. 105, 114, 97 S.Ct. 1723, 52 L.Ed.2d 172 (1977), therefore weighs in favor of completing the construction project.