Friends of Yosemite Valley v. Norton

348 F.3d 789, 2003 WL 22428962
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedOctober 27, 2003
DocketNo. 02-16037
StatusPublished
Cited by86 cases

This text of 348 F.3d 789 (Friends of Yosemite Valley v. Norton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Friends of Yosemite Valley v. Norton, 348 F.3d 789, 2003 WL 22428962 (9th Cir. 2003).

Opinion

WARDLAW, Circuit Judge.

The Merced River flows through the glaciated Yosemite Valley and then cuts more steeply, westward, through the Merced River Gorge and some of the region’s oldest rock formations. This appeal challenges the sufficiency of the remedy granted by the district court in Friends of Yosemite Valley v. Norton, 194 F.Supp.2d 1066, 1071 (E.D.Cal.2002). The district court granted only part of the declaratory and injunctive relief sought by Friends of Yosemite Valley and Mariposans for Environmentally Responsible Growth (collectively, “Friends”) against the National Park Service (“NPS”) for alleged deficiencies in the Merced Wild and Scenic River Comprehensive Management Plan (“CMP”). Friends contends that the NPS failed to prepare a valid CMP to protect and enhance the natural values of the Merced River, thereby violating the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (“WSRA”), 16 U.S.C. § 1271 et seq., the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), 42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq., and the Administrative Procedures Act (“APA”), 5 U.S.C. § 701, et seq. The district court rejected each of Friends’ claims.

We agree with Friends that the CMP (1) inadequately addresses user capacities by failing to set the “maximum quantity of use” for the river area and (2) too narrowly defines the boundaries for the El Portal segment of the Merced and, therefore, we reverse in part. We affirm in part, however, because the district court correctly determined that (1) the CMP’s data and information satisfied the requirements of both the WSRA and NEPA, (2) it had jurisdiction over Friends’ water pollution claim under the WSRA, and (3) the NPS cooperated with the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.

I. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In a prior action challenging the NPS’s failure to comply with the WSRA by neglecting to develop a CMP for the Merced, the district court ordered the agency to “prepare and adopt a valid Comprehensive Management Plan pursuant to 16 U.S.C. § 1274(d) in regard to the Merced River as designated under the [WSRA] no later than twelve months after the entry of this decision.” Sierra Club v. Babbitt, 69 F.Supp.2d 1202, 1263 (E.D.Cal.1999). Following a brief extension of the deadline, and after completing the NEPA process, the NPS published the Merced Wild and Scenic River Comprehensive Management Plan on August 9, 2000, with a revised record of decision being signed on November 3, 2000.

In the present litigation, Friends challenges the validity of the CMP.1 Following a bench trial on November 6, 2001, the district court ruled that the NPS did not violate the court’s prior Sierra Club order requiring the agency to prepare and adopt a valid CMP pursuant to 16 U.S.C. [793]*793§ 1274(d), and concluded that the CMP as issued did not violate the WSRA, NEPA, or the APA. Friends of Yosemite Valley, 194 F.Supp.2d at 1127-28.

On appeal, Friends argues that: (1) the CMP inadequately “address[es] ... user capacities,” in violation of the WSRA, 16 U.S.C. § 1274(d)(1); (2) the boundaries selected by the NPS for the portion of the river flowing through El Portal disregard the WSRA’s mandate that the river area must be “administered in such manner as to protect and enhance the values which caused it to be included in [the wild and scenic rivers system],” 16 U.S.C. § 1281(a); (3) the NPS prepared the CMP (which incorporates the final EIS) as a programmatic document and, as such, it contains insufficiently specific data and information, in violation of the WSRA, 16 U.S.C. §§ 1274(d)(1), 1281(a), NEPA, 42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq., and NEPA’s implementing regulations, 40 C.F.R. § 1500 et seq.; and (4) the NPS has failed to cooperate with federal and state agencies to eliminate or reduce pollution of the Merced River, in violation of the WSRA, 16 U.S.C. § 1283(c).

II. JURISDICTION AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

We have jurisdiction over this appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review the district court’s findings of fact after a bench trial for clear error and its conclusions of law de novo. See Zivkovic v. S.Cal. Edison Co., 302 F.3d 1080, 1088 (9th Cir.2002). We review the NPS’s actions under the WSRA and NEPA pursuant to the APA, which states that a decision may be set aside “only if it was arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with the law.” Hells Canyon Alliance v. United States Forest Serv., 227 F.3d 1170, 1176-77 (9th Cir.2000).

The determination whether the NPS acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner rests on whether it “articulated a rational connection between the facts found and the choice made.” Pub. Citizen v. DOT, 316 F.3d 1002, 1020 (9th Cir.2003). “[Cjourts must carefully review the record to ensure that agency decisions are founded on a reasoned evaluation of the relevant factors, and may not rubber-stamp ... administrative decisions that they deem inconsistent with a statutory mandate or that frustrate the congressional policy underlying a statute ....” Id. Nevertheless, we “may not substitute [our] judgment for that of the agency [but] must simply ensure that the agency has adequately considered and disclosed the environmental impact of its actions, bearing in mind that NEPA exists to ensure a process, not particular substantive results.” Hells Canyon, 227 F.3d at 1177.

III. THE MERCED RIVER

A. The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act

Congress enacted the WSRA in 1968 to identify and protect certain “rivers which, with their immediate environments, possess outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural, or other similar values.” 16 U.S.C. § 1271. The WSRA establishes that its component rivers “shall be preserved in free-flowing condition, and that they and their immediate environments shall be protected for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations.” Id. In addition to initially designating certain rivers to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System (“WSRS”), see id. § 1274(a)(1)-(a)(8), the WSRA provided that other rivers may be added to the WSRS, including through congressional amendment of the WSRA. See id.

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Bluebook (online)
348 F.3d 789, 2003 WL 22428962, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/friends-of-yosemite-valley-v-norton-ca9-2003.