Court Opinion

ID: 9459818
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:32:39.551504+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:21.043969
License: Public Domain

CRAVEN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting) :
I cannot accept the theory of my Brethren that from the issuing of the permit in question by the Corps of Engineers, it is a “necessary inference” that the Corps made the proper determinations concerning whether an environmental impact statement was necessary. It can just as easily and logically be inferred that the district engineer, acting for the Corps, misconceived his function, or ignored the requirements of law, since there is nothing in the administrative record to indicate that he was even *164aware of his duty under 42 U.S.C. § 4832(2) (c) and Rule 11(c) to make specific determinations. No written findings concerning the necessity of an impact statement were ever filed. Even if the district engineer made such a determination he may have so determined for an insufficient reason. In short, there may have been noncomplianee or incorrect compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act and the Corps of Engineers’ own rules.
The majority opinion states that the regulations in force at the time the permit was issued did not specifically require a negative finding as to the necessity of an impact statement. Three days after the permit was issued, however, a regulation of the Corps of Engineers became effective, requiring the district engineer, if he determines that an environmental impact statement is not required, to make a written finding to that effect, setting forth his reasons therefor, and providing that the finding should become, public knowledge. Reg.No. 1105-2-507, fifí 4(b)(2) and 5(g)(2). 38 Fed.Reg.No. 70, pp. 9243-44 (April 12, 1973). Consequently, it seems to me that, as a minimum, the administrative record should be supplemented before the district court by the testimony of the district engineer. This is precisely what was authorized in Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe, 401 U.S. 402, 419, 91 S.Ct. 814, 28 L. Ed.2d 136 (1970), although in that case a change in circumstances obviated the need for formal findings. Indeed, I would conclude that under Thorpe v. Housing Authority, 393 U.S. 268, 281-282, 89 S.Ct. 518, 21 L.Ed.2d 474 (1969), the district court, or we, should apply the new regulation to the instant case.
Finally, if it be assumed that the Corps of Engineers made a “finding,” it seems to me that the Corps viewed the proposed construction of the fishing pier and marina as a “zoning” or land-use problem, rather than as an environmental one. I do not think the question readily yields to solution by label. We are told in oral argument that this will be the eighth fishing pier extending into the Atlantic within a distance of some 20 miles. I do not know how many fishing piers are too many, but I think that too many may substantially alter the environment of North Carolina’s priceless Outer Banks. It is, of course, true that the issuance of a permit by the Corps to construct a boat dock on an inland waterway for a private homeowner is not major federal action requiring the preparation of an impact statement. But what about the 500th such permit, or the 10,000th one? At some point “zoning” and environmental impact merge. Ecology is largely a matter of land use.
We cannot tell from this record whether or not the construction of this pier and marina will increase the risk of an ocean breach of the Banks, but even if we assume that will not occur, there remains the issue I have adverted to: whether increasing commercial utilization of the Banks may at some point pass beyond “zoning” and effect significant environmental degradation of a unique national asset. The Corps’s own regulations adopt what seems to me to be the proper test for determining when an environmental impact statement is required: whether the proposed action could have a significant adverse effect on the quality of the environment, not whether it would have such an effect. 37 Fed.Reg. 2525 (February 2, 1972).
Because I believe the construction of such a fishing pier and marina could adversely affect the environmental nature of the Outer Banks, I would reverse the refusal to issue a preliminary injunction and would stop the construction of the pier and marina pending a trial on the merits to determine the necessity for preparation of an impact statement.