National Wildlife Federation v. Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service

• Decision Date: 05 February 1992
• Docket Number: No. 90-5483,90-5483
• Citation: 955 F.2d 1199
• Parties: 22 Envtl. L. Rep. 21,012 The NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION, the Minnesota Conservation Federation, the Izaak Walton League of America, and Leon Carney, Appellants, v. The AGRICULTURAL STABILIZATION AND CONSERVATION SERVICE, an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1199

955 F.2d 1199

22 Envtl. L. Rep. 21,012

The NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION, the Minnesota Conservation

Federation, the Izaak Walton League of America, and Leon Carney, Appellants, v. The AGRICULTURAL STABILIZATION AND CONSERVATION SERVICE, an

agency of the United States Department of

Agriculture, Appellee.

No. 90-5483.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted March 11, 1991.

Decided Feb. 5, 1992.

Anthony Turrini, Anchorage, Alaska, argued, for appellants.

Catherine Fisk, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., argued, for appellee.

Before WOLLMAN, Circuit Judge, FLOYD R. GIBSON, Senior Circuit Judge, and BEAM, Circuit Judge.

BEAM, Circuit Judge.

The National Wildlife Federation, the Minnesota Conservation Federation, the Izaak Walton League of America, and Leon Carney, who were plaintiffs in the district court and to whom we refer collectively as NWF, request that we decide whether the Secretary of Agriculture, through the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, possesses the statutory or regulatory authority, pursuant to either the Food and Agricultural Act of 1962, 7 U.S.C.A. § 1339a (West Supp.1991) (Food Act) or 7 C.F.R. § 790.2(a) (1991), to issue a good-faith exemption from the Swampbuster provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985. See 16 U.S.C.A. §§ 3821-3824 (West Supp.1991). In granting summary judgment in favor of ASCS and thereby dismissing NWF's complaint, the district court held that ASCS possessed the authority to grant such an exemption and that its action was not arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion. See National Wildlife Fed'n v. ASCS, No. 3-89-674, Order at 3 (D.Minn. Sept. 5, 1990). Because Congress has amended Swampbuster and the Food Act since the district court's decision, we do not decide the question presented by the parties. Instead, we vacate and remand.

I. BACKGROUND

This case, in essence, began in early 1985, when fourteen farmers in Minnesota petitioned their local watershed district for a permit to drain eighty-five acres of prairie wetlands in Yellow Medicine County. The enactment of the Food Security Act of 1985, on December 23, 1985, however, prohibited the farmers from draining the wetlands, on penalty of losing certain farm program benefits, including price supports, unless the proposed drainage was exempted from the Act. Generally, section 3821 provided that any person who produced an agricultural commodity on converted wetlands would be ineligible for various farm payments or programs "[e]xcept as provided in section 3822." 16 U.S.C. § 3821 (1988). Section 3822 provided that "[n]o person shall become ineligible under section 3821 ... for program loans, payments, and benefits" if one of several exemptions applied. Id. § 3822 (1988). Thus, the farmers sought a statutory exemption, known as a commenced determination, which would allow them to drain the wetlands if their project was "commenced" before Swampbuster was enacted. See id. § 3822(a)(1); 16 U.S.C.A. § 3822(b)(1)(A). Because Swampbuster is initially administered on the local level, the farmers sought a commenced determination from their ASCS county committee. See 7 C.F.R. §§ 12.6(b)(3)(viii), 780.4 (1991).

On April 23, 1987, the Yellow Medicine County ASCS Committee found that only preliminary engineering work had been done on the project prior to December 23, 1985, and, thus, that the project had not been "commenced" within the meaning of the regulations. See id. § 12.5(d)(4). The farmers appealed to the state ASCS committee, which, on May 18, 1987, reversed the county committee. Even though the state committee's determination was subject to further review by the Deputy Administrator of State and County Operations, see id. §§ 780.5, 12.6(b)(2), 12.12, ¹ and, as of April 25, 1988, construction contracts had not yet been signed, the farmers went ahead with the project, which was completed by September 1, 1988.

On August 16, 1988, however, in apparently the first environmentally-motivated appeal considered by ASCS, see Turrini, ASCS Gets Serious About Swampbuster, National Wetlands Newsletter (Envtl.Law Inst.) at 8-9 (Nov.-Dec. 1988), the deputy administrator reversed the state ASCS committee's ruling and denied the exemption. After further consideration, ASCS reaffirmed its decision that the farmers were not entitled to a commenced determination, but nonetheless granted them some relief. That is, the deputy administrator determined that "relief shall be granted to those producers who took actions or allowed actions to be taken on their behalf to drain specific wetlands on the basis of the Minnesota State Committee's May 18, 1987, commenced determination." Joint App. at 43. In essence, the relief saved the farmers from complete ineligibility for farm payments and programs under section 3821 should they put the converted wetlands into agricultural production.

NWF then filed this action in district court under the Administrative Procedures Act, challenging the authority of ASCS to grant relief. See 5 U.S.C. §§ 701-706 (1988). The district court noted that, although ASCS cited no legal authority supporting its decision, it "apparently based its decision on the good faith reliance provisions" of 7 C.F.R. § 790.2 (1991). National Wildlife Fed'n, Order at 2 n. 3. That section provides:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, performance rendered in good faith in reliance upon action or advice of any authorized representative of a county committee or State committee ... may be accepted ... as meeting the requirements of the applicable program, and price support may be extended ... to the extent it is deemed desirable ... to provide fair and equitable treatment.

7 C.F.R. § 790.2(a). ² Thus, the district court held that the administrative record demonstrated a substantial factual basis to support the deputy administrator's findings, and that the ASCS decision was not arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion. National Wildlife Fed'n, Order at 3. This appeal followed.

II. DISCUSSION

On appeal, NWF asks us to hold that, because the only permissible exemptions to the ineligibility provisions of section 3821 are those statutory exemptions explicitly set forth in section 3822, ASCS exceeded its authority in granting relief. NWF points, in part, to the introductory language of section 3821: "Except as provided in section 3822 of this title and notwithstanding any other provision of law." From this language, NWF argues that the statute overrides any contrary regulation. ASCS responds by contending that the deputy administrator acted pursuant not to 7 C.F.R. § 790.2, but to 7 U.S.C.A. § 1339a, which provides for a good-faith exemption in the same language as the regulation, and from which the regulation is obviously derived. Like section 3821, section 1339a also begins, "[n]otwithstanding any other provision of law." The parties would have us decide this battle of statutory "notwithstanding[s]."

Since the decision of the district court, however, Congress has enacted, effective November 28, 1990, the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990, Pub.L. No. 101-624, 104 Stat. 3359 (1990). As part of this legislation, Congress substantially amended sections 3821 and 3822. Section 3822 now explicitly contains a statutory good-faith exemption. See 16 U.S.C.A. § 3822(h). ³ In essence, the new law provides that a person who would otherwise have been completely ineligible under section 3821 for farm programs and payments might instead be subject to a graduated sanction of not less than $750 nor more than $10,000, depending on the seriousness of the violation, if (1) the person is actively restoring the drained wetlands by agreement with the Secretary, and (2) the Secretary determines that the person has not otherwise violated section 3821 in the past ten years, and has converted the wetland "in good faith and without the intent to violate the provisions of section 3821." Id. § 3822(h)(1)(A), (B). Congress has also modified the Food Act by enacting changes in 7 U.S.C. § 1339a on December 13, 1991. ⁴ These changes provide additional authority to the Secretary to grant eligibility for price support or other payments when a farmer has been injured through good faith reliance on actions taken by representatives of the Secretary. We consider, therefore, the effect of these new laws on this case.

A. Standing

Before we do so, we must consider the issue of standing. Even though ASCS did not file a cross-appeal from the district court's grant of summary judgment in its favor, we must address its arguments that, contrary to the district court's ruling, NWF lacks standing. See Goos v. I.C.C., 911 F.2d 1283, 1289 (8th Cir.1990) (court can consider standing even when raised for first time on appeal). More specifically, ASCS argues that the Minnesota Conservation Federation and the Izaak Walton League lack standing because neither organization submitted affidavits from any members alleging injury. ASCS also argues that individual plaintiff Leon Carney, a Minnesota farmer who alleges economic injury due to the increased production and falling prices that could result from draining the wetlands, does not allege an injury in fact that would be redressable by a favorable decision. ASCS does not, however, contend that NWF has failed to establish constitutional standing through the affidavits of several members. ⁵ As NWF points out, "where one plaintiff establishes standing to sue, the standing of other plaintiffs is immaterial." Reply Brief at 4. See, e.g., Bowen v. Kendrick, 487 U.S. 589, 620 n. 15, 108 S.Ct. 2562, 2580 n. 15 (1988). Thus, we consider only whether NWF has standing.

In one of the affidavits submitted to the district court, Dennis Haaland, an NWF member and farmer in Yellow Medicine County who lives approximately four miles from the drainage project, alleges that he regularly drives through the wetlands, that he appreciates their aesthetic beauty in part by...