Opinion ID: 3053503
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Disclose/Analyze Dredging

Text: NICAN argues that the Agencies violated NEPA by failing to disclose and assess in the 2005 EA, or a supplemental EA, the impacts of dredging Sand Creek. We disagree. Prior to issuance of the 2005 EA, there were internal discussions within the Agencies regarding the possible need for the excavation or dredging of Sand Creek. There also was, however, a good deal of uncertainty within the Agencies about whether dredging would be required and, if so, the extent of that dredging. For example, the initial application to the Army Corps of Engineers indicated a belief that no dredging would be required. And shortly before the 2005 EA was issued, hydraulics engineers were still examining at least three dredging alternatives, and the design remained “subject to change.” The Agencies could not adequately or meaningfully evaluate the environmental impacts of any potential dredging until they had more information, which depended at least in part on ongoing discussions with the Army Corps of Engineers and 14110 NORTH IDAHO COMMUNITY ACTION v. DOT the Clean Water Act permitting process. Once additional information regarding the proposed dredging was available, the Agencies performed the 2006 Reevaluation to analyze the dredging and its projected impacts, and to determine whether the new information required the preparation of a SEIS or a supplemental EA. See Idaho Sporting Cong. Inc. v. Alexander, 222 F.3d 562, 566 (9th Cir. 2000); Price Road Neighborhood Ass’n v. U.S. Dep’t of Transp., 113 F.3d 1505, 1510 (9th Cir. 1997); 23 C.F.R. § 771.129(a) (1988). The Agencies concluded that the dredging would not have significant environmental impacts beyond those already considered, and thus that neither a SEIS nor a supplemental EA was required. The Agencies’ use of the reevaluation process is substantially similar to that approved in Price Road, 113 F.3d at 1510, and we find no fault with the Agencies’ use of that process here. In Price Road, a freeway project initially contemplated two below-ground enclosed tunnels but was revised to include two fully-directional loop ramps instead of the tunnels. Id. at 1507-08. The Agencies considered, in an environmental reevaluation, the environmental effects of the changes and determined there were no discernible differences in the level of environmental impacts beyond those previously considered. Id. at 1508. The agency thus did not prepare an EA or EIS for the changes. Id. [3] We noted that, while NEPA does not specifically address how an agency should decide when changes require a more formal EA or EIS, the Federal Highway Administration had specifically provided for reevaluations as a means to determine whether or not the approved environmental document remains valid. Id. at 1509-10 (citing 23 C.F.R. § 771.129(c)). We thus concluded that if the agency, after the requisite “hard look” in a reevaluation, determines that the new impacts will not be significant (or not significantly different from those already considered), then the agency is in NORTH IDAHO COMMUNITY ACTION v. DOT 14111 full compliance with NEPA and is not required to conduct a supplemental EA. Id. at 1510; see also Highway J Citizens Group v. Mineta, 349 F.3d 938, 959-60 (7th Cir. 2003) (holding that when a “known issue came into sharper focus after the formal environmental documents were issued,” it was not improper to use internal reevaluation to analyze the issue). [4] In the present case, the Agencies took the requisite “hard look” at the impacts of dredging Sand Creek in the 2006 Reevaluation, and determined that there were no new impacts that were significantly different than those already considered and that neither a SEIS nor a supplemental EA was therefore required. We hold that the Agencies did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in making those determinations, and that they complied with NEPA in their evaluation of the proposed dredging.1