Sierra Club, Inc. v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serv.
| Decision Date | 21 December 2018 |
| Docket Number | No. 17-16560,17-16560 |
| Citation | 911 F.3d 967 |
| Parties | SIERRA CLUB, INC., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE; National Marine Fisheries Service, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Thomas Pulham (argued), Appellate Staff, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for Defendants-Appellants.
Reed W. Super (argued) and Michael DiGiulio, Super Law Group LLC, New York, New York, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Shaun A. Goho, Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for Amicus Curiae Union of Concerned Scientists.
Before: J. Clifford Wallace and Marsha S. Berzon, Circuit Judges, and Terrence Berg,* District Judge.
Across the United States, thousands of large industrial facilities, power plants, and other manufacturing and processing complexes draw billions of gallons of water each day from lakes, rivers, estuaries and oceans in order to cool their facilities through cooling water intake structures.1 These structures can harm fish, shellfish, and their eggs by pulling them into the factory's cooling system; they can injure or kill other aquatic life by generating heat or releasing chemicals during cleaning processes; and they can injure larger fish, reptiles and mammals by trapping them against the intake screens.2 Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1326(b), directs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate the design and operation of cooling water intake structures to minimize these adverse effects.
In April 2011, the EPA proposed new regulations under Section 316(b) for cooling water intake structures. 76 Fed. Reg. 22,174 (April 20, 2011). The final rule was published in the Federal Register in August 2014. Final Regulations to Establish Requirements for Cooling Water Intake Structures, 79 Fed. Reg. 48,300 (Aug. 15, 2014) (). As part of the rule-making process, EPA consulted with Appellants, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (collectively, the Services), about the impact the regulation might have under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Section 7 of the ESA and implementing regulations require federal agencies to consult with the Services whenever an agency engages in an action that "may affect" a "listed species" (i.e., one that is protected under the ESA). 50 C.F.R. § 402.14(a). The purpose of the consultation is to ensure that the agency action is "not likely to jeopardize the continued existence" or "result in the destruction or adverse modification of habitat" of any endangered or threatened species. 16 U.S.C. § 1536(a)(2) ; 50 C.F.R. § 402.14(a). As part of this Section 7 consultation process, the Services must prepare a written biological opinion on whether the proposed agency action is one that poses "jeopardy" or "no jeopardy" to the continued existence of a listed species or critical habitat. 50 C.F.R. § 402.14(h)(3). If the opinion concludes that the agency action causes "jeopardy," the Services must propose "reasonable and prudent alternatives" (RPAs) to the action that would avoid jeopardizing the threatened species. 16 U.S.C § 1536(b)(3)(A) ; 50 C.F.R. § 402.14(g)(8), (h)(3).3
Appellee, the Sierra Club, made a Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") request to the Services for records generated during the EPA's rule-making process concerning cooling water intake structures, including documents generated by the Services as part of an ESA Section 7 consultation about the rule. The Services withheld a number of the sought-after records under "Exemption 5" of FOIA, which shields documents subject to the "deliberative process privilege" from disclosure. See 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(5) ; see also Kowack v. U.S. Forest Serv. , 766 F.3d 1130, 1135 (9th Cir. 2014). The district court determined that 12 of the 16 requested records were not protected by the privilege, in whole or in part, and ordered the Services to turn them over to the Sierra Club. The Services now appeal. We affirm in part and reverse in part.
In 2012, the EPA began an informal consultation process with the Services about a proposed rule for regulating the requirements governing the operation of cooling water intake structures. The EPA requested a formal consultation on the proposed rule in 2013. On November 4, 2013, the Services received a revised version of the proposed rule from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). On November 15, 2013, the Services sent a "Description of the Action" (i.e. a summary of what the Services thought the proposed rule set out to do) to the EPA. Finally, on November 26, 2013, the EPA responded with corrections to the Services' description of the rule and the Services incorporated the EPA's corrections. The EPA and the Services tentatively agreed that the FWS and NMFS would each provide a draft biological opinion to the EPA by December 6, 2013, and a final opinion by December 20, 2013.
After reviewing the November 2013 proposed rule, both Services prepared draft opinions finding that the rule in its then-current form was likely to cause jeopardy for ESA-protected species and negatively impact their designated critical habitats. The Services also proposed RPAs to accompany those jeopardy opinions. At the same time, NMFS discussed whether the jeopardy opinions should be sent to "the Hill" or OMB, or posted to its docket, which was publicly available at regulations.gov.
NMFS completed its draft jeopardy opinion on December 6, 2013 and FWS completed its draft jeopardy opinion on December 9, 2013, both for transmission to the EPA. The ESA regulations require that the Services make draft opinions available to the Federal agency that initiated the formal consultation upon request. 50 C.F.R. § 402.14(g)(5). Here, the Services sent the EPA portions of its December 2013 draft jeopardy opinions, but never formally transmitted them in their entirety.
On December 12, 2013, the FWS Deputy Solicitor called and emailed the EPA General Counsel to "touch base ... about transmitting a document to EPA." He also emailed "the current draft RPAs" to the EPA that same day. On December 17, 2013, the NMFS sent a "Revised Combined NMFS and USFWS RPA" to the EPA. The Services have further indicated in their briefing that they also provided other unspecified portions of the draft jeopardy opinions to the EPA.
After the transmission of these partial December 2013 jeopardy biological opinions and accompanying documents, the EPA issued a new version of the rule, the "final Rule and Preamble," which it sent to the Services on March 14, 2014. On April 7, 2014, NMFS employees completed and internally circulated a draft of another jeopardy biological opinion. During this same time frame, the Services and the EPA discussed whether the EPA agreed with the Services' interpretation and understanding of the March 2014 final rule: On March 31, 2014 the Services sent the EPA a document "seeking clarification on the Services' understandings of key elements in EPA's proposed action." On April 8, 2014, EPA "provided confirmation on the Services' description and understanding of the key elements of EPA proposed action." Finally, on May 19, 2014, the Services issued a joint final "no jeopardy" biological opinion regarding the March 2014 final rule. The EPA issued the regulation that same day, and it was published in the Federal Register on August 15, 2014. Final Regulations to Establish Requirements for Cooling Water Intake Structures, 79 Fed. Reg. 48,300.
On August 11, 2014, the Sierra Club submitted FOIA requests to the Services for records related to this ESA Section 7 consultation. In response, the Services produced a large quantity of documents (some of which were partially redacted). The Services withheld other documents under FOIA Exemption 5, which protects "inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters that would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency." 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(5).
In summary, the key chronological dates in this FOIA dispute are:
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