Farmland Preservation Ass'n v. Goldschmidt

• Decision Date: 10 December 1979
• Docket Number: No. 79-1583,79-1583
• Citation: 611 F.2d 233
• Parties: , 10 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,052 FARMLAND PRESERVATION ASSOCIATION; Community Action Research Group of Iowa, Inc., Norman Clare Sloan, Appellants, v. Neil GOLDSCHMIDT, Secretary, United States Department of Transportation, et al., Appellees, Waterloo Chamber of Commerce et al. (Intervenors), Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 233

611 F.2d 233

14 ERC 1791, 10 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,052

FARMLAND PRESERVATION ASSOCIATION; Community Action Research Group of Iowa, Inc., Norman Clare Sloan, Appellants, v. Neil GOLDSCHMIDT, Secretary, United States Department of Transportation, et al., Appellees Waterloo Chamber of Commerce et al. (Intervenors), Appellees.

No. 79-1583.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Oct. 10, 1979.

Decided Dec. 10, 1979.

Bruce J. Terris, Washington, D. C., for appellants; Edward Comer, Washington, D. C., and Keith Mossman, of Mossman & Mossman, Vinton, Iowa, on brief.

Robert W. Goodwin, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Iowa Department of Transp., Ames, Iowa, for the State appellees.

David C. Shilton, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for Federal appellees; Jacques B. Gelin, Washington, D. C., James H. Reynolds, U. S. Atty., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and James W. Moorman, Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., on brief.

Cecil L. Goettsch, Kent M. Forney and Patrick B. Northup, Des Moines, Iowa, on brief, for appellees, Waterloo Chamber of Commerce, et al.

Before LAY, HEANEY and HENLEY, Circuit Judges.

HENLEY, Circuit Judge.

This is an environmental case in which plaintiffs appeal from a final order of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa (The Honorable Edward J. McManus, Chief Judge) denying plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and granting a cross-motion for summary judgment filed by the defendants. We affirm.

The action was commenced by or on behalf of a number of Iowa farmers for the purpose of opposing the proposed construction of federal Interstate Highway 380 (I-380) along a 47.6 miles segment running in a southeast to northwest direction between the Cities of Cedar Rapids and Waterloo. Plaintiffs claim that the final environmental impact statement (EIS) that was prepared in connection with the project as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. § 4321 Et seq., was inadequate in that it allegedly did not properly discuss certain alternatives to the proposed construction, as required by 42 U.S.C. § 4332(2)(C)(iii). Plaintiffs claim that they will be damaged irreparably by the proposed construction, and they seek declaratory and injunctive relief; they also seek relief in the nature of mandamus. Additionally, plaintiffs seek an award of costs and attorneys' fee. Federal subject matter jurisdiction was properly based on 28 U.S.C. § 1331(a) and § 1361.

The defendants deny that plaintiffs are entitled to any relief, and, as indicated, the district court agreed with the defendants.

Plaintiff, Farmland Preservation Association, is a non-profit Iowa corporation that was formed in 1976 by about forty-five Iowa farmers to oppose the project in question. Those farmers own and operate farms in Linn, Benton, Buchanan and Black Hawk Counties between Cedar Rapids and Waterloo.

One of those farmers is Norman Clare Sloan who appears as an individual plaintiff. The third plaintiff is Community Action Research Group of Iowa, Inc., another Iowa non-profit corporation. It is based in Ames, Iowa and is engaged in doing research work and providing consulting services in certain fields including the environment and technology. Supporting the position of the farmers, that corporation has joined them as a plaintiff.

As in some other environmental cases involving Interstate Highway construction, we have two sets of defendants. The federal defendants are the Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation and the Director of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The state defendants are the Director of the Iowa Department of Transportation, formerly known as the Iowa State Highway Commission, and the individual members of the Iowa Transportation Commission. ¹

The suit was filed on November 6, 1978. The plaintiffs attacked the EIS in question on a number of grounds including the claim that the statement did not discuss an alleged alternative of building a road between Cedar Rapids and Waterloo to design standards less rigorous than those required of Interstate Highways, and did not discuss adequately the alternative of not building any highway at all through the area.

After the case came to issue, the parties entered into a very full and helpful stipulation covering many of the material facts of the case; other facts were developed otherwise by documentary evidence. In due course both sides moved for summary judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(a) and (b). A voluminous record, including thorough memorandum briefs, was assembled and submitted to the district court.

Judge McManus concluded, and we agree, that the case presented no genuine issue as to any material fact and that summary disposition of the case under Rule 56 was appropriate. On June 19, 1979 the district judge filed a full memorandum opinion upholding the position of the defendants and rejecting the claims of the plaintiffs. Final judgment having been entered, this appeal was timely taken. ²

I.

42 U.S.C. § 4332(2)(C) requires that there must be included in every federal recommendation for major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment a detailed written statement dealing with (1) the environmental impact of the proposed action; (2) any adverse environmental effects that cannot be avoided should the proposal be implemented; (3) alternatives to the proposed action; (4) the relationship between the local short-term use of the environment and enhancement of long-term productivity; and (5) any irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources that would be involved in the proposed action should it be implemented. ³

The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) established by Title II of NEPA, 42 U.S.C. §§ 4341-47, has promulgated guidelines for the preparation of the statements required by § 4332(2)(C), and those guidelines appear as 40 CFR § 1500.1 Et seq. The required discussion of alternatives must include a discussion of what may be called the "no action" alternative. 40 CFR § 1500.8(a)(4).

The federally funded highway program in this country is governed in general by relevant provisions of the Federal-Aid Highways Act, as frequently amended, that now appears as 23 U.S.C. § 101 Et seq. as implemented by regulations that appear in Title 23 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The program is administered by FHWA which is an agency within the federal Department of Transportation. Construction of an Interstate Highway is funded to the extent of ninety per cent by the federal government.

The parties have stipulated by reference to 23 U.S.C. §§ 103(e) and 109(b) that the Secretary of Transportation is required to approve requests of state highway departments for Interstate Highway routes and must approve the plans and specifications for each Interstate Highway.

The parties have further stipulated that all Interstate Highways must be controlled access, divided highways with a minimum of four traffic lanes as provided in 23 U.S.C. § 109(b) and 23 CFR § 625.3(a)(3), which in turn refers to a publication issued by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHO) in 1969 entitled "A Policy on Design Standards Interstate System."

II.

The adequacy of a final EIS prepared by a federal agency is subject to limited judicial review in the federal courts. While the scope of that review has been articulated variously in numerous decisions of the Supreme Court, the several courts of appeals, and the district courts, the scope is actually well defined.

In a case like this, a district court is required to perform two functions. First, it must determine whether the challenged EIS is adequate as a statement to satisfy the requirements of NEPA. If that question is answered in the affirmative, then the district court is required to go further and engage in a limited substantive review of agency action to determine whether it passes muster under the scope of review provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 706. However, it is not the function of the federal court ultimately to pass on the merits of the contemplated action or to substitute its judgment for that of the agency. See Arkansas Community Organization for Reform Now v. Brinegar, 398 F.Supp. 685, 695-96 (E.D.Ark.1975), ⁴ and cases cited, including Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe, 401 U.S. 402, 416, 91 S.Ct. 814, 28 L.Ed.2d 136 (1971), and Iowa Citizens for Environmental Quality v. Volpe, 487 F.2d 849, 852-53 (8th Cir. 1973).

III.

We take notice of the fact that the rural area between Cedar Rapids and Waterloo that will be traversed by I-380 consists of extremely valuable farm lands adapted to various agricultural uses.

Farms in Iowa, as in other midwestern states, are generally laid out and operated by reference to government surveyed mile square sections with each section containing 640 acres. And local roads in the area usually run along section lines the directions of which are either north to south or east to west.

In this day and time commercial agriculture, as practiced in Iowa and elsewhere, involves the use of huge, unwieldy pieces of farm equipment. A farmer desiring to make efficient use of his equipment will normally try to conduct his farming operations along straight lines, thus avoiding the "short rows" that a diagonal operation would entail.

The contemplated highway, if built, will force the affected farmers into just the type of diagonal operations that they want to avoid to say nothing of their losses of lands actually taken for use in connection with the project. Additionally, assuming a controlled access road, a farmer left with land on both sides of the Interstate Highway may have to move his machinery and equipment several miles to get a few yards from one part of his farm to the other.

The landowners are entitled, of course, to just compensation for their lands that are taken in connection with the...