Homeowners Emergency Life Protection Committee v. Lynn

388 F. Supp. 971, 7 ERC 1416
CourtDistrict Court, C.D. California
DecidedDecember 30, 1974
DocketCV 74-2917-AAH
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 388 F. Supp. 971 (Homeowners Emergency Life Protection Committee v. Lynn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, C.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Homeowners Emergency Life Protection Committee v. Lynn, 388 F. Supp. 971, 7 ERC 1416 (C.D. Cal. 1974).

Opinion

DECISION, FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AND ORDER FOR JUDGMENT

HAUK, District Judge.

On October 10, 1974, plaintiff Homeowners Emergency Life Protection Committee, an unincorporated association comprised of homeowners and taxpayers allegedly situated within the path which would be inundated in the event of a failure of the Los Angeles Dam and Reservoir, filed this action naming three “Federal defendants” — the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Administrator of the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration [FDAA], and the Regional Director for Region Nine of the FDAA — and five “City defendants” — the City of Los Angeles, the General Manager and City Engineer of the City Department of Water and Power [DWP], the Chief Financial Officer of the DWP, the Board of Water and Power Commissioners, and the President of the Board of Water and Power Commissioners. The plaintiff requested this Court to prohibit any further action by any of these defendants with regard to the Los Angeles Dam and Reservoir [Dam] until the requisites of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, 42U.S.C. §§ 4321-4347 (1970) [NEPA], have been fulfilled. Concurrently, plaintiff filed a motion for a Temporary Restraining Order pursuant to Fed.R.Civ. P. 65(b) seeking to prevent the imminent award of contracts for the construction of the Dam at a meeting of the defendant Board of Water and Power Commissioners scheduled for that very day.

Upon completion of a hearing in chambers, at which all parties were represented, on October 10, 1974, this Court issued a Temporary Restraining Order prohibiting the Federal defendants for a period of ten days from “authorizing, approving, expending or taking other major Federal actions upon said request for Federal funding until such time as [they] . . . shall have complied with NEPA . . . ” The motion for a Temporary Restraining Order was denied as to the City defendants. By consent of the parties the Temporary Restraining Order as to the Federal defendants was extended for an additional ten days, and, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 65(a)(2) and Stipulation of all parties, plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction was consolidated with the trial on the merits held by the Court sitting without a jury on October 29 and 30, 1974.

*973 BACKGROUND

On February 9, 1971, an earthquake of 6.5 magnitude on the Richter Scale, and centered approximately two miles from the Van Norman Dam and Reservoir, severely damaged that Dam, which was the “key facility” in the water supply system of the City of Los Angeles. A substantial amount of the 20,000 acre feet of water in the Reservoir impounded by the Dam was removed to relieve the pressure on the Dam. The Van Norman Dam is now, and has been since that date, “permanently out of service.” On December 27, 1971, the City Council of defendant City of Los Angeles resolved, inter alia, that application be made to the Federal Office of Emergency Preparedness, now the FDAÁ, 1 pursuant to the Disaster Relief Act of 1970, Pub.L. No. 91-606, 84 Stat. 1744, 2 for funds to replace the damaged Van Norman Dam with the proposed Los Angeles Dam. 3 Subsequently, an amended application was filed on June 29, 1973, and a third one is now being prepared. The Federal government has not yet completed processing any of the City’s applications.

On April 18, 1974, the defendant Board of Water and Power Commissioners authorized the DWP to begin advertising for construction bids for the proposed new Los Angeles Dam. On August 27, 1974, the bids were opened, and on October 10, 1974, plaintiff filed its motion for a Temporary Restraining Order upon the belief that the construction contract would be awarded on that date 4 and that the construction would commence shortly thereafter.

Plaintiff alleges that the proposed Dam

will have significant effects on the quality of the human environment including, but not limited to (i) effects on the land uses of the dam and reservoir sites, and on the surrounding land; (ii) effects on the population growth and distribution in the communities surrounding and served by the dam and reservoir; and (iii) effects on the health and safety of the population living beneath the dam posed by the danger of the dam failure.

Thus, according to the plaintiff, the construction of the Dam constitutes a “major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment” which, under the terms of NEPA, requires the preparation of what has become popularly known as an Environmental Impact Statement [EIS]. See 42 U.S.C. § 4332(2)(C)(i) (1970). Plaintiff contends that the Federal defendants here are the “responsible officials” charged in 42 U.S.C. § 4332(2) (C) with the preparation of an EIS, and that the City defendants are also charged with these same duties in this case because the making of the DWP application for Federal funds, coupled with the designing of the proposed Dam to meet eligibility requirements for Federal funding, make those defendants “an inexorable part of the proposed ‘major Federal action.’ ” Thus, according to the plaintiff, NEPA requires all defendants herein to “preserve the status quo regarding the Los Angeles Dam and Reservoir pending completion of the EIS under NEPAr”' We disagree.

CITY DEFENDANTS NOT BOUND BY NEPA

NEPA is, of course, a Federal statute and therefore places no obligations upon the City defendants here. The procedural requirements established by that statute only obligate “agencies of the Federal Government” and only concern *974 “major Federal actions.” 42 U.S.C. § 4332(2)(C) (1970) (emphasis added). The plaintiff seeks to avoid this overwhelming reality by alleging that, by some mystical process, the City defendants have become an “inexorable part” of a major Federal action and are therefore bound by NEPA. However, it is clear that the Dam here has not yet approached the status of a “major Federal action”- — -as even the plaintiff recognizes in its denomination of the Dam project as a “proposed ‘major Federal action’ . . . . ” (emphasis added).

Nonetheless, the plaintiff insists that the “ongoing relationship” between the City defendants and the Federal defendants herein with regard to the Dam transmutes the Dam project into a “major Federal action” which would invoke NEPA. In fact, from the initiation of the project to replace the Van Norman Dam, the U.S. Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Geological Survey have been involved in its planning.

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Related

Homeowners, Emergency Life Protection Committee v. Lynn
432 F. Supp. 1334 (C.D. California, 1977)
Friends of Yosemite v. Frizzell
420 F. Supp. 390 (N.D. California, 1976)
Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Coleman
518 F.2d 323 (Ninth Circuit, 1975)

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Bluebook (online)
388 F. Supp. 971, 7 ERC 1416, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/homeowners-emergency-life-protection-committee-v-lynn-cacd-1974.