Breckinridge v. Rumsfeld, 75--2505
| Decision Date | 13 August 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 75--2505,75--2505 |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
| Parties | , 6 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,597 John B. BRECKINRIDGE et al., Appellees, v. Donald H. RUMSFELD et al., Appellants. |
Eugene E. Siler, Jr., U.S. Atty., Lexington, Ky., Eldon L. Webb, Peter R. Taft, Edmund B. Clark, Kathryn A. Oberly, Dept. of Justice, Brian O'Neill, Dept. of Army, Washington, D.C., for appellants.
Bert T. Combs, Tarrant, Combs & Bullitt, Louisville, Ky., W. Terry McBrayer, Lexington, Ky., Glenda J. Beard, Louisville, Ky., Julius E. Rather, Lexington, Ky., for appellees.
Before PHILLIPS, Chief Judge, and CELEBREZZE and MILLER, * Circuit Judges.
The question presented on this appeal involves the breadth to be given to the term 'human environment' as used in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). 42 U.S.C. § 4321, et seq. Specifically, does action by the United States Army which reduces jobs and transfers personnel from the Lexington-Bluegrass Army Depot (LBAD) to depots in California and Pennsylvania constitute 'a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment,' within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 4332(C)?
The District Court enjoined the Army from proceeding with the proposed transfer until a formal environmental impact statement has been prepared and circulated. We hold that the District Court was in error in undertaking to transform NEPA from a law designed to protect and enhance the natural resources of the nation into a statute prohibiting the discharge and transfer of personnel at an army installation, and that it was not the intention of Congress for NEPA to be used for purposes of promoting full empolyment or to prevent the discharge or transfer of federal personnel. We conclude that the injunction must be dissolved and the decision of the District Court requiring an environmental impact statement must be reversed with directions to the District Court to dismiss the suit.
On November 22, 1974, the Secretary of Defense announced 111 actions involving realignment of units and closures of particular bases. One of the actions affected LBAD to the extent that 18 military and 2,630 civilian jobs would be eliminated in the Lexington area. The Army prepared an environmental assessment which concluded that because there was to be no significant effect on the human environment, a formal environmental impact statement was not required. Additionally, a non-governmental research institution, Battelle Columbus Laboratories, studied the possible socio-economic impact of the action and concluded that the Lexington area would suffer only minimal short term unemployment as a result of the partial closure.
On August 22, 1975, a complaint was filed in the United States District Court seeking an injunction to block the proposed action. The plaintiffs included four Kentucky Congressmen, two United States Senators, two county judges, the City of Richmond, Kentucky, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, the Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce, three property and business owners in the vicinity of LBAD and four civilian employees at LBAD. The defendants were the United States Army, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Army, the Army Chief of Staff, and the Department of Defense. The District Court granted the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction on October 31, 1975, but did not rule upon the question which this court concludes to be dispositive as to the litigation: Does the scope of the term 'human environment' extend to the closing of a military base and transfer of personnel and functions by the United States Army?
Appellants' assert that this is not an environmental lawsuit. They argue that Congress did not intend that NEPA be a statutory cure-all for the temporary economic ills of Lexington, Kentucky. The appellees counter by stating that socio-economic impacts fall within the scope of NEPA and contend that the term 'human environment' means environment which directly affects human beings, including unemployment and loss of revenue. The appellants argue that NEPA is directed only to the preservation of those resources needed to sustain present and future generations and that personal and economic interests are not in and of themselves sufficient to bring the statute into play. In the present case there is no long term impact, no permanent commitment of a national resource and no degradation of a traditional environmental asset, but rather short term personal inconveniences and short term economic disruptions. We conclude that such a situation does not fall within the purview of the Act.
The contention that NEPA goes beyond what might be stated to be the 'physical environment' is not in dispute. Environmental impact statements have been mandated in such diverse instances as construction of a federal jail in the back of the United States Court House in Manhattan. Hanly v. Kleindienst, 484 F.2d 448 (2d Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 936, 94 S.Ct. 1934, 40 L.Ed.2d 286 (1974); Hanly v. Kleindienst, 471 F.2d 823 (2d Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 412 U.S. 908, 93 S.Ct. 2290, 36 L.Ed.2d 974 (1973); Hanly v. Mitchell, 460 F.2d 640 (2d Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 990, 93 S.Ct. 313, 34 L.Ed.2d 256 (1972); and railroad abandonment proceedings. Harlem Valley Transportation Ass'n v. Stafford, 500 F.2d 328 (2d Cir. 1974); City of New York v. United States, 337 F.Supp. 150 (E.D.N.Y.1972).
Although factors other than the physical environment have been considered, this has been done only when there existed a primary impact on the physical environment. See Chelsea Neighborh'd Ass'ns v. U.S. Postal Service, 516 F.2d 378, 388 (2d Cir. 1975); Minnesota Public Interest Research Group v. Butz, 498 F.2d 1314, 1322 (8th Cir. 1974); Maryland-National Capital Park v. United States Postal Services, 159 U.S.App.D.C. 158, 487 F.2d 1029, 1037--38 (1973); Hanly v. Mitchell, 460 F.2d 640, 647 (2d Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 990, 93 S.Ct. 313, 34 L.Ed.2d 256 (1972).
In discussing the breadth of NEPA, the District of Columbia Circuit has stated:
Not all deviations from local...
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