Opinion ID: 146745
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: .Purpose and Need

Text: My colleagues' opinion concluding that BLM's Statement of Purpose and Need for the project is defective completely misunderstands the purpose of this requirement in a setting where a private entity approaches a government entity with a joint proposal that will benefit both. Of course there is a private purpose driving this project. But the project benefits both parties, not just Kaiser. To isolate one without factoring in the other is patently illogical. To illustrate the folly of this fallacy, all one has to do is examine the IBLA's opinion outlining the habitat benefits of this exchange to fish and wildlife and threatened and endangered species. Here, however, is how BLM's goal reads in the Introduction of the Draft EIS/EIR: 1.3.1 Project Purpose and Need The primary purpose of the Project is to develop a new Class III nonhazardous municipal solid waste landfill to meet the projected long-term demand for environmentally sound landfill capacity in Southern California; provide a long-term income source from the development of a nonhazardous municipal solid waste landfill; find an economically viable use for the existing mining by-products at the Kaiser Eagle Mountain Mine site, including use of existing aggregate and overburden; and provide long-term land use and development goals and guidance for the Townsite. Several recent studies documenting the need for additional landfill capacity in Southern California indicate that additional capacity is needed to meet the long-term demands (i.e., 1995 to 2050) and possible short-term needs (i.e.1995 to 2000) of the Southern California region (California Integrated Waste Management Board [CIWMB],1992; CIWMB, 1994, Draft Countywide Siting Elements  for the seven counties viewed as potential sources of waste for the proposed landfill  1995 and 1996). Additional capacity is also required for counties and municipalities in Southern California to satisfy the legal requirements of AB 939 to demonstrate adequate waste disposal capacity. The solid waste capacity in southern California changes often due to a number of factors, including: (1) the closure of small, ineffective landfills as new regulations take effect; (2) the development of larger regional sites; (3) the uncertainty of permitting efforts of new and expanded landfills; (4) litigation over land use issues of landfills and (5) the privatization of publicly owned landfills. These factors necessitate that cities and counties undertake long-term planning to ensure that adequate capacity is available. The discussion below of waste capacity in the Southern California region is based on projected short-, medium-, and long-term needs. Future needs are based on several continuing and changing trends: (1) increase in population (California's population is expected to more than double from its current 30 million to more than 60 million by the year 2040 [California Department of Finance, 1993]); (2) expanded waste diversion and recycling, which is reducing the amount of material being disposed of in landfills; and (3) landfill closures and development proposals that will affect future disposal capacity. This section then takes 12 pages reviewing and analyzing a critical landfill capacity shortfall in Southern California, focusing on the counties of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Diego the seven counties within the proposed landfill's service area. The detailed discussion highlights a critical need for additional disposal capacity in the service area. During this particularized discussion, Kaiser's obvious pecuniary goals are nowhere in sight. In the final EIS/EIR, we discover that the need for landfill capacity had increased since the Draft. The result-oriented notion that BLM has narrowly drawn this statement of purpose and need is utterly wrong. Of course BLM acknowledged Kaiser's purpose  the law requires BLM to do so! For private, non-federal proposals, [a]gencies ... are precluded from completely ignoring a private applicant's objectives. Colo. Envtl. Coal. v. Dombeck, 185 F.3d 1162, 1175 (10th Cir.1999) (involving Vail Associates expansion of its existing ski area into the White River National Forest); see also Citizens Against Burlington, Inc. v. Busey, 938 F.2d 190 (D.C.Cir.1991). Read with an open mind, this statement suffers from no defects whatsoever.