Opinion ID: 1042638
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Appellants’ ESA Claims

Text: Appellants also contend that the NMFS’s biological opinion is arbitrary and capricious in violation of the ESA because it did not “meaningfully” analyze the “entire action” proposed by the Navy—including both the installation and the operation phases of the USWTR. In support, Appellants first point to statements in the Navy’s ROD and the NMFS’s cover page to its biological opinion that they claim indicate that the biological opinion only considered installation. See 24 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 25 of 41 DON185919 (“[T]he Navy’s [S]ection 7 consultation under the ESA is only with regard to the installation of the [R]ange. Navy will initiate another formal consultation under Section 7 of the ESA to address A[nti] S[ubmarine] W[arfare] training on the USWTR in the 2014/2015 timeframe.”); AR001731 (stating that “[e]nclosed is the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) Biological Opinion on the effects of the U.S. Navy’s proposal to install an Undersea Warfare Training Range . . .” and noting that “[t]his Opinion concludes that the U.S. Navy’s proposal to install an Undersea Warfare Training Range (USWTR) is not likely to adversely affect endangered or threatened species under NMFS[’s] jurisdiction or critical habitat that has been designated for those species . . .”). However, Appellants ignore the very next sentence of the cover page which states, “We have concluded that anti-submarine warfare training activities the U.S. Navy plans to conduct on [the] USWTR are likely to adversely affect endangered whales, but [are] not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of those whales.” AR001731 (emphasis added). Appellants also overlook that the Navy’s ROD explains that the “NMFS provided Navy with a Biological Opinion (BO) on July 28, 2009, in which it analyzed the effects of both installation and use of the USWTR” and characterizes the biological opinion as concluding that “activities associated with the [antisubmarine] training on [the USWTR] are likely to adversely affect but are not 25 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 26 of 41 likely to jeopardize the continued existence of endangered and threatened species.” DON185885-185886 (emphasis added). Irrespective of these statements as to whether the biological opinion analyzed only the installation phase or both the installation phase and operation phase of the USWTR, the content of the over 100-page biological opinion itself confirms that it analyzed both installation and operation. The biological opinion defines the proposed action for purposes of analysis to include both USWTR installation and operations. It then discloses the nature of the anti-submarine warfare training to occur on the USWTR, and it specifies the “operating procedures” to be used in anti-submarine warfare activities to protect endangered species. The biological opinion also specifically identifies “stressors . . . potentially associated with the Operations Phase” of the USWTR, such as ship strikes, the effects of sonar, and the risk of entanglement from small parachutes, analyzes the likelihood that listed species will be exposed to such stressors associated with operations, and analyzes the likely response of listed species that are exposed to such stressors. Despite these details pertaining to operations on the USWTR, Appellants still contend that while the biological opinion purports to consider operations, its analysis with regard to operations was not “meaningful” because it does not reflect the “unique nature” of the USWTR. Appellants say that this failure is apparent 26 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 27 of 41 from portions of the biological opinion that appear to be cut-and-pasted from the biological opinions of the Navy’s other anti-submarine warfare training projects along the eastern seaboard, including the biological opinions from the much-larger Jacksonville Operating Area. The NMFS admits that portions of the biological opinion contain summaries of the “results of the analyses” from existing biological opinions on the Navy’s anti-submarine warfare training on the eastern seaboard and in the Jacksonville Operating Area, where the USWTR will be located. The Navy’s stated reason for this overlap is that ongoing anti-submarine warfare training operations in the Jacksonville Operating Area are already covered by the required NEPA and ESA documentation and permits, and operations at the USWTR are not expected to significantly change training already occurring in the area. We agree with the NMFS and the Navy that the summary of impacts of the same level of training from other biological opinions does not undermine the analysis in the biological opinion for the USWTR because the biological opinion also clearly considered the specific types of training proposed for the USWTR. For example, in the biological opinion’s actual conclusions, it discusses impacts to listed species from operations on the USWTR itself. The section of the biological opinion entitled “Integration and Synthesis of Effects” contains ultimate conclusions of the analysis as to each listed species. For right whales, it notes that 27 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 28 of 41 the Navy has likely overestimated the number that will be exposed to sonar because of the “relatively short duration” of the planned exercises on the USWTR, “the small number of surface and submarine vessels” associated with the training and the “very small probabilities [of right whales] occurring in any particular 500 square mile area.” AR001925. For each affected species of sea turtle, the biological opinion notes the “relatively small size of the proposed [USWTR] relative to the density of sea turtles that might occur on the training range” in determining the impact from operations. AR001926. In addition, it is clear from the biological opinion that the NMFS’s analysis was also informed by the Navy’s final EIS and biological assessment, two documents not challenged by Appellants in this appeal. These documents are part of the administrative record for the biological opinion, and each considered the USWTR-specific environmental impacts compared with the other four locations that the Navy proposed for the USWTR. For example, the biological opinion discloses that “NMFS relied solely on the results of models the U.S. Navy conducted for their NEPA compliance documents for the [USWTR]” when evaluating the exposure of marine mammals and sea turtles to stressors associated with operating the USWTR. AR001753. Those Navy models include modeling of acoustic effects at each of the four alternative locations for the USWTR studied, and Appendix D to the EIS contains detailed model results for each training scenario at each alternative site. The 28 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 29 of 41 model results were different for each location studied, demonstrating that the Navy considered impacts on the USWTR site selected. The NMFS relied on the Navy’s data in the biological opinion, as it discusses the data specifically in the “Integration and Synthesis of Effects” section. See AR001923-001928. The NMFS therefore adequately considered impacts of operations on the USWTR as opposed to some broader area. 6 As further evidence that the biological opinion did not consider the unique characteristics of the USWTR as compared with the larger Jacksonville Operating Area, Appellants point to a statement made in the Navy’s recent application for an MMPA take authorization for marine mammals connected with other Navy training on the Atlantic coast, as follows: “[S]onar activities could be concentrated on the [USWTR] after it is constructed. Potential acoustic impacts from major 6 Contrary to Appellants’ assertions, it makes no difference to our review that some of the data supporting the NMFS’s analysis in the biological opinion appears in the Navy’s final EIS and biological assessment rather than in the biological opinion itself. The NMFS was a cooperating agency in preparing the Navy’s EIS, and the ESA regulations envision agency coordination on ESA and NEPA compliance. See 50 C.F.R. § 402.06 (providing that consultation, conference, and biological assessment procedures under Section 7 of the ESA may be consolidated with interagency cooperation procedures required by other statutes, such as NEPA). Moreover, our judicial review under the APA is based on the “whole record.” 5 U.S.C. § 706. There is “no requirement that every detail of the agency’s decision be stated expressly in the [biological opinion]” as long as the “rationale is present in the administrative record underlying the document.” In re Operation of Mo. River Sys. Litig., 421 F.3d 618, 634 (8th Cir. 2005) (citations omitted). See also Miller v. Lehman, 801 F.2d 492, 497 (D.C. Cir. 1986) (“[W]e are required to uphold a decision of less than ideal clarity if the agency’s path may reasonably be discerned. In addition, if the necessary articulation of basis for administrative action can be discerned by reference to clearly relevant sources other than a formal statement of reasons, we will make the reference.”) (citations and quotation marks omitted). 29 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 30 of 41 training exercises, especially behavioral impacts, could be more pronounced given the duration and scale of the events.” See Navy Request for Regulations and Letters of Authorization for the Incidental Taking of Marine Mammals Resulting from U.S. Navy Training and Testing Activities in the Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing Study Area, available at http://nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/permits /aftt_navy_loa_application2012.pdf. This communication by the Navy to the NMFS was made after the briefing before the district court in this case and over three years after the EIS, biological opinion, and ROD were issued. The Court will not consider it because it is not part of the administrative record and is thus not grounds for setting aside NMFS’s “no jeopardy” opinion, which had to be based on the best information available at the time regarding the likely effects of USWTR operations. See 16 U.S.C. § 1536(a)(2) (purpose of consultation is to insure that proposed action is “not likely” to result in jeopardy and biological opinion must be based on the “best scientific and commercial data available”). See also Pres. Endangered Areas of Cobb’s History, Inc., 87 F.3d at 1246 (“The focal point for judicial review of an administrative agency’s action should be the administrative record.”) (citing Camp v. Pitts, 411 U.S. 138, 142, 93 S. Ct. 1241, 1244, 36 L.Ed.2d 106 (1973)); Sierra Club v. Bosworth, 510 F.3d 1016, 1026 (9th Cir. 2007) (“Post-decision information may not be advanced as a new rationalization either for sustaining or attacking an agency’s decision.”) (internal alterations, 30 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 31 of 41 quotation marks, and citation omitted). Even if the Court were to consider this evidence, and to the extent that information does become available indicating that the USWTR location has unique characteristics not already considered, or that the Navy’s decision to further “concentrate” training on the range results in some changes to impacts on listed species, those impacts will be considered in the already-planned future consultations before there will actually be any operations resulting in impacts. See 50 C.F.R. § 402.16(c) (providing for reinitiation of consultation if “the identified action is subsequently modified in a manner that causes an effect to the listed species or critical habitat that was not considered in the biological opinion”). Appellants also rely on a series of decisions from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals holding that biological opinions must be “coextensive in scope” with the agency action. See, e.g., Conner v. Buford, 848 F.2d 1441, 1457-58 (9th Cir. 1988) (holding that “biological opinions must be coextensive with agency action” and rejecting the argument that a federal agency could meet its ESA obligations by addressing portions of the agency action incrementally as each portion went into effect); Greenpeace v. Nat’l Marine Fisheries Serv., 80 F. Supp. 2d 1137, 1150 (W.D. Wash. 2000) (“A biological opinion which is not coextensive in scope with the identified agency action necessarily fails to consider important aspects of the problem and is, therefore, arbitrary and capricious.”); Nat’l Wildlife Fed’n v. Nat’l 31 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 32 of 41 Marine Fisheries Serv., 524 F.3d 917, 930 (9th Cir. 2008) (finding that allowing segmentation under the ESA would mean that “a listed species could be gradually destroyed, so long as each step on the path to destruction is sufficiently modest”). As an initial matter, the rule that biological opinions must be coextensive in scope with the “entire action” or else violate the ESA is nowhere to be found in the language of the ESA and we decline to adopt that rule here. In any event, the cases relied on by Appellants addressed situations where federal agencies compartmentalized the analysis of actions and thereby avoided discussing the entire scope of the action. In contrast here, the NMFS’s biological opinion analyzed both installation and operations and is therefore “coextensive in scope” with the Navy’s entire proposed action. So even if this Court were to adopt the Ninth Circuit’s test, the biological opinion in this case would satisfy it. In sum, the Court is convinced that the biological opinion and supporting administrative record, including the biological assessment and EIS prepared by the Navy, sufficiently considered, not only installation, but also the operations that are expected to occur on the USWTR, in reaching the ultimate conclusion that no take of listed species is likely from installation and that “activities associated with the Operations Phase of the [USWTR] are likely to adversely affect but are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of” listed species. See AR001929. Section 7(a)(2) of the ESA required nothing more of the NMFS. 32 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 33 of 41 Indeed, while Appellants assert that the Navy’s and the NMFS’s decision to structure their EPA consultation the way that they did, i.e., deciding to study operational impacts again in a new biological opinion before operations are authorized, undermines the Navy’s initial consultation with the NMFS or the NMFS’s biological opinion, Section 7(a)(2) of the ESA does not require that consultation under the act take place in any particular manner. Section 7(a)(2) simply directs the federal agency to “insure” in consultation with the NMFS or the FWS that its actions are not likely to jeopardize the existence of listed species or their critical habitat. See 16 U.S.C. § 1536(a)(2). It is for the agencies to determine how best to structure consultation to fulfill Section 7(a)(2)’s mandate. The United States Supreme Court has recognized on numerous occasions that “the formulation of procedures was basically to be left within the discretion of the agencies to which Congress has confided the responsibility for substantive judgments.” See, e.g., Vt. Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. Nat. Res. Def. Council, Inc. 435 U.S. 519, 524, 98 S. Ct. 1197, 1202, 55 L.Ed.2d 460 (1978). The Court has described this principle as “an outgrowth of the congressional determination that administrative agencies and administrators will be familiar with the industries which they regulate and will be in a better position than federal courts or Congress itself to design procedural rules adapted to the peculiarities of the industry and the tasks of the agency involved.” FCC v. Schreiber, 381 U.S. 279, 290, 85 S. Ct. 33 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 34 of 41 1459, 1467, 14 L.Ed.2d 383 (1965). Utilizing their administrative discretion, the Navy and the NMFS decided that since expected operations on the USWTR will have essentially the same impact as ongoing submarine warfare training operations that have already been analyzed in previous consultations and biological opinions, and that since expected operations on the USWTR are not likely to jeopardize listed species, they would analyze the known impacts of expected operations now, but in the future consider those impacts again in a new consultation before operational activities commence. That decision is due deference by this Court because there is no statutory basis for ordering that the consultation be carried out in some other manner. If anything, it appears that the Navy’s future consultation with the NMFS regarding operations on the USWTR will ensure that any adverse impacts to listed species will be considered closer in time to when operations will actually commence. See DON185885-185886 (“Delaying the application for incidental take authorizations will also allow for incorporation of the best available science, as required by the MMPA and ESA, at that time in the analysis of potential environmental effects.”). After all, the ESA’s requirement that the federal agency avoid jeopardy remains in force throughout the life of a project, and the project must be abandoned or reasonable and prudent measures to avoid jeopardy must be adopted, if later stages of a project result in jeopardy to listed species. See 50 C.F.R. §§ 402.14(i)(4), 402.16(a). As long as the initial stage of 34 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 35 of 41 the project does not foreclose the adoption of these reasonable and prudent measures, see 16 U.S.C. § 1536(d), and as long as the conclusions of the biological opinion are not arbitrary, a staged structuring of consultation may comply fully with Section 7’s mandate. Here, the Navy has expressed that if jeopardy from operations is determined to be likely during the future consultation; having installed the range will not limit the reasonable and prudent measures available for structuring operations to avoid jeopardy, including abandonment of the range. The record indicates that the NMFS analyzed the entire action, including both the installation and operation phases of the USWTR, in its biological opinion, and the Navy’s and the NMFS’s decision to analyze impacts from operations again in a future consultation does not undermine their existing consultation or the resulting biological opinion. Therefore, the Court cannot say that the Navy and the NMFS acted arbitrarily and capriciously in this regard and summary judgment with regard to this issue is due to be affirmed. ii. Lack of an Incidental Take Statement for Operations Appellants also claim that the biological opinion is arbitrary and capricious for an entirely independent reason: it fails to include an incidental take statement for operations on the USWTR. As an initial matter, NMFS’s biological opinion concluded that no take of listed species is likely to occur from installation of the USWTR. Thus, no incidental take statement was required regarding the 35 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 36 of 41 construction phase of the project. See Ariz. Cattle Growers Ass’n, 273 F.3d at 1240. Appellants do not challenge the biological opinion on this point. However, the biological opinion also concluded that take of listed species may occur in connection with operations on the USWTR, but that no jeopardy to listed species would occur pursuant to operations. Pursuant to the ESA, then, the NMFS is required to issue an incidental take statement that relates to operations on the USWTR, lest the Navy incur take liability pursuant to Section 7 of the ESA. See 50 C.F.R. §§ 402.14(g)(7) (providing that during formal consultation, the expert agency must “[f]ormulate a statement concerning incidental take, if such take may occur”), 402.14(i)(1) (requiring that an incidental take statement specifying the amount or extent of take, reasonable and prudent measures to minimize such impact, required terms and conditions, and measures necessary to comply with the MMPA be provided “with the biological opinion”). However, the NMFS provided a valid reason for its failure to include an incidental take statement for operations in the biological opinion. Because an MMPA take authorization for listed marine mammal species, such as right whales in this case, must precede the NMFS’s issuance of an incidental take statement, see 16 U.S.C. § 1536(b)(4)(C), and because MMPA take authorizations are only effective for five year periods, see 16 U.S.C. § 1371(a)(5)(A), the NMFS and the Navy rationally concluded that any MMPA take authorization pertaining to 36 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 37 of 41 operations on the USWTR that the NMFS obtained at the time the biological opinion was issued in 2009 would expire long before the USWTR’s operational date expected to be sometime between 2018 and 2023. To avoid redundant authorizations and wasting resources, the NMFS and the Navy chose to postpone the process of obtaining the MMPA take authorization and the resulting incidental take statement until the Navy reinitiates formal consultation with the NMFS on operations prior to authorizing training. In response to the NMFS’s reasoning, Appellants do not dispute that an incidental take statement, at least for marine mammals, must be predicated on an MMPA authorization of such taking pursuant to 16 U.S.C. § 1371(a)(5). See 16 U.S.C. § 1536(b)(4)(C). Instead, they restate their argument that in order for the biological opinion to be complete it had to “meaningfully” analyze the effects of operations on the USWTR as well as installation. See Reply Brief of Appellants p. 25 (“But if Defendants had performed a comprehensive analysis of the entire action, rather than segmenting their decision-making, such permit [e.g., the MMPA authorization] could have—and indeed should have—already issued.”). Indeed, the dispute between the parties is not whether an incidental take statement must issue, but when. Appellants say that the Navy could and should have waited to authorize both construction and operations until after it had obtained an MMPA take authorization, just as it did with the construction and operation of a training 37 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 38 of 41 range off the coast of Southern California. See MMPA Take Authorization, 74 Fed. Reg. 3882 (Jan. 21, 2009). Irrespective of whether the West Coast range referenced by Appellants also complies with the ESA, we find that it was not arbitrary or capricious for the NMFS to postpone the issuance of an incidental take statement for right whales in this situation. As an initial matter, no incidental take statement is required now, as the USWTR is still in the installation phase where no take of any listed species is expected. See Ariz. Cattle Growers Ass’n, 273 F.3d at 1240. The biological opinion can be upheld on that ground alone. Moreover, an MMPA take authorization and corresponding incidental take statement, which will pertain solely to operations on the range, will serve no purpose while the USWTR is still in the installation phase and no operations are actually occurring. These permits will certainly not serve their statutory purpose of creating a safe harbor from take liability, and obtaining them now would be a meaningless exercise. In any event, the Navy has repeatedly committed to obtaining the required MMPA take authorization and incidental take statement during a future consultation with the NMFS, prior to operations on the range commencing. We also reject Appellants’ argument that the current lack of an incidental take statement cannot be remedied in the course of a subsequent formal consultation because, they claim, without an incidental take statement, the 38 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 39 of 41 biological opinion omits the important “trigger” of the amount of take of listed species necessary to cause the Navy to reinitiate consultation with the NMFS. See 50 C.F.R. §§ 402.14(i)(4) (“If during the course of the action the amount or extent of incidental taking . . . is exceeded, the Federal agency must reinitiate consultation immediately.”), 402.16(a) (providing for same). See also Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Fla., 566 F.3d at 1271-72, 1275 (“An incidental take statement may lawfully authorize harm to an endangered species as long as the statement sets a ‘trigger’ for further consultation at the point where the allowed incidental take is exceeded, a point at which there is a risk of jeopardizing the species.”) (citing 50 C.F.R. § 402.14(i)(4)). Appellants’ concern is unwarranted because the current biological opinion provides that its lack of an incidental take statement for operations means that the Navy must reinitiate consultation with the NMFS if even a single take of a listed species occurs. See Biological Opinion, 001931 (“because this Biological Opinion did not exempt any ‘take’ of endangered or threatened species, the U.S. Navy would be required to reinitiate formal consultation if one or more individuals of an endangered or threatened species is ‘taken’”). Thus the current lack of an incidental take statement means that the “trigger” for reinitiating consultation is set to its strictest setting, not that there is no trigger. Finally, we must address Appellants’ argument that certain listed species of sea turtles are not marine mammals and are thus not covered by the MMPA, so the 39 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 40 of 41 NMFS has no statutorily-based argument that the biological opinion did not have to include an incidental take statement for sea turtles during operations. The NMFS responds that it rationally concluded that since the Navy will have to engage in further consultation with the NMFS to obtain the MMPA take authorization for marine mammals, an incidental take statement for all species, including sea turtles as well as right whales, would issue at that time in the new biological opinion pertaining to operations. The biological opinion thus provides, “If and when such [MMPA] regulations or authorizations are issued, the [NMFS] will prepare a new biological opinion to include an incidental take statement for the endangered and threatened species that have been considered in the biological Opinion, as appropriate.” AR001930 (emphasis added). The Navy’s rationale is supported by the record and is due deference by this Court. Thus, we do not find that it was arbitrary or capricious for the NMFS to postpone the issuance of an incidental take statement for sea turtles in this situation. To be clear, this Court is not condoning the lack of an incidental take statement in a biological opinion, if one is warranted. The incidental take statement serves important purposes of measuring conservation and monitoring take to ensure both that the agency really does ensure against jeopardy and that any take that occurs in minimized. See 50 C.F.R. § 402.14(i). But we read the ESA as only requiring the incidental take statement to be included in the biological opinion 40 Case: 12-15680 Date Filed: 10/01/2013 Page: 41 of 41 if take of listed species is likely in the first place. Here, no take is likely because no take is expected from installation and because the Navy will not operate the range without first engaging in further environmental analysis with the NMFS. In other words, there is no possibility that operations will occur on the USWTR that may take a listed species that will not be covered by a new biological opinion. That new biological opinion will include any necessary incidental take statements and MMPA take authorizations. Under the facts of this case, the NMFS’s decision to postpone the issuance of the incidental take statement for all listed species until closer in time to when the operations that warrant it actually occur was not inconsistent with the ESA’s statutory scheme or otherwise arbitrary or capricious. The judgment of the district court is due to be affirmed on Appellants’ ESA claims.