Los Alamos Study Group v. United States Department of Energy

692 F.3d 1057, 2012 WL 3642425, 75 ERC (BNA) 1970, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 18157
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedAugust 27, 2012
Docket11-2141
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 692 F.3d 1057 (Los Alamos Study Group v. United States Department of Energy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Los Alamos Study Group v. United States Department of Energy, 692 F.3d 1057, 2012 WL 3642425, 75 ERC (BNA) 1970, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 18157 (10th Cir. 2012).

Opinion

*1060 HARTZ, Circuit Judge.

On August 16, 2010, Plaintiff Los Ala-mos Study Group filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321-4347, and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. §§ 701-706. Defendants were the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the United States Department of Energy (DOE), NNSA’s administrator, and the DOE secretary. The complaint alleged that the design proposed for construction of a Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility (the Nuclear Facility) at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (the Laboratory) had changed so much since the original environmental analysis in 2003 that a new analysis was required and that all work on the facility should be halted until the conclusion of such analysis. The district court dismissed the claims on two grounds: (1) that they were prudentially moot because Defendants began an environmental analysis after the complaint was filed and committed to refraining from all construction on the Nuclear Facility until the analysis was complete, and (2) that the case was not yet ripe because there had been no final agency action. We agree with the district court on the ripeness issue. We therefore need not address prudential mootness.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Regulatory Overview

NNSA is an agency within the DOE whose responsibilities include managing and securing the nation’s nuclear weapons. As part of these responsibilities, NNSA administers the Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The Laboratory supports various activities relating to nuclear weapons, including “nuclear materials handling, processing and fabrication; stockpile management; materials and manufacturing technologies; nonproliferation programs; and waste management activities.” 69 Fed.Reg. 6967, 6968 (Feb. 12, 2004).

As a federal agency, NNSA must comply with the provisions of NEPA, which “declares a broad national commitment to protecting and promoting environmental quality.” Robertson v. Methow Valley Citizens Council, 490 U.S. 332, 348, 109 S.Ct. 1835, 104 L.Ed.2d 351 (1989). NEPA does not require agencies to reach particular substantive environmental results. See id. at 350-51, 109 S.Ct. 1835. But it “requires federal agencies to pause before committing resources to a project and consider the likely environmental impacts of the preferred course of action as well as reasonable alternatives.” Forest Guardians v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serv., 611 F.3d 692, 711 (10th Cir.2010) (internal quotation marks omitted). Its dual goals are that the agency “consider every significant aspect of the environmental impact of a proposed action” and “inform the public that it has indeed considered environmental concerns in its decisionmaking process.” Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 462 U.S. 87, 97, 103 S.Ct. 2246, 76 L.Ed.2d 437 (1983) (internal quotation marks omitted).

To further these goals, NEPA requires thorough environmental studies before official action:

[ B]efore an agency may take major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment, an agency must prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) in which the agency considers the environmental impacts of the proposed action and evaluates alternatives to the proposed action, including the option of taking no action. In doing so, the agency must take a hard look at information relevant to its decision.

*1061 Forest Guardians, 611 F.3d at 711 (citations, brackets, and internal quotation marks omitted). If, after an EIS has been prepared, “there are substantial changes to the proposal or significant new circumstances or information relevant to environmental concerns,” then a supplemental EIS (an SEIS) must be prepared. 10 C.F.R. § 1021.314(a). An SEIS is prepared in the same manner as the original EIS, except that the DOE is not required to allow the public to comment on the scope of an SEIS. See id. § 1021.311(a), (f); id. § 1021.314(d); 40 C.F.R. § 1501.7 (defining scoping as “an early and open process for determining the scope of issues to be addressed and for identifying the significant issues related to a proposed action”), If the DOE takes action on a proposal in an EIS or SEIS, it must prepare a public record of decision (ROD), see 10 C.F.R. § 1021.315(b); id. § 1021.314(d), which states what the decision is, identifies and analyzes the alternatives considered, and discusses means of avoiding or minimizing environmental harm from the selected alternative, see 40 C.F.R. § 1505.2.

B. Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Building

Many of the Laboratory’s activities require facilities equipped to handle radioactive materials. The most important of these facilities are located in the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research building (the CMR Building) and a separate plutonium facility (which is being upgraded in another project). Some of the CMR Building’s capabilities are apparently unique, such as its analytical-chemistry and materials-characterization functions. In the late 1990s NNSA concluded that the CMR Building was “near the end of its useful life,” 69 Fed.Reg. 6967, 6968, both because a seismic analysis had revealed that the building lacked sufficient structural integrity and because its components were aging. NNSA therefore began considering options for how and where to continue the functions performed at the CMR Building. An EIS in 2003 analyzed four alternatives for the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Building Replacement Project. They varied in what buildings would be constructed and where they would be placed. The ultimate choice for the project in the 2004 ROD, see id. at 6967-72, was “Alternative 1”: replacing the CMR Building with a new facility at Technical Area 55 comprised of two buildings: a “consolidated nuclear material-capable, Hazard Category 2 laboratory building” (the Nuclear Facility), and “a separate, adjacent administrative office and support functions building,” referred to as the Radiological Laboratory Utility Office Building (the Office Building). 75 Fed.Reg. 60745, 60746 (Oct. 1, 2010).

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692 F.3d 1057, 2012 WL 3642425, 75 ERC (BNA) 1970, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 18157, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/los-alamos-study-group-v-united-states-department-of-energy-ca10-2012.