UTAH INTERN. v. Dept. of Interior of the US
| Decision Date | 28 December 1982 |
| Docket Number | C-81-0093W and C-81-0172W.,Civ. No. C-81-0090W |
| Citation | 553 F. Supp. 872 |
| Parties | UTAH INTERNATIONAL, INC., a corporation, and Nevada Electric Investment Company, a corporation, Plaintiffs, v. DEPARTMENT OF the INTERIOR OF THE UNITED STATES; James G. Watt, Secretary of the Interior; the Office of Surface Mining; J.R. Harris, Director of the Office of Surface Mining; the Environmental Defense Fund; Friends of the Earth; the Sierra Club; Sylvan Johnson; Leon Lippincott; Caroline Lippincott; Jet Mackelprang; Cynthia Myers; Susan Hittson; Larry Little; Gary A. Kalpakoff; Joan A. Kalpakoff; and East Canyon Irrigation Company, Defendants. STATE OF UTAH, By and Through its DIVISION OF STATE LANDS AND FORESTRY and Its DIVISION OF OIL, GAS AND MINING, Plaintiffs, v. James G. WATT, Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior, and the United States of America, Defendants. SIERRA CLUB, a non-profit corporation; Friends of the Earth, a non-profit corporation; Jet Mackelprang; Cynthia Myers; Susan Hittson; and Caroline Lippincott, Plaintiffs, v. James G. WATT, in his capacity as Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior; the Department of the Interior of the United States; Andrew V. Bailey, in his capacity as Acting Director of the Office of Surface Mining; the Office of Surface Mining; Utah International, Inc., a corporation; and Nevada Electric Investment Company, a corporation, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Utah |
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Allan N. Littman, Michael R. Barr, Ronald E. Van Buskirk, John M. Grenfell, San Francisco, Cal., F. Alan Fletcher, Robert Pruitt, III, Salt Lake City, Utah, for plaintiffs Utah Intern., Inc., and Nevada Elec. Inv. Co.
Brent D. Ward, U.S. Atty., Joseph W. Anderson, Asst. U.S. Atty., Salt Lake City, Utah, Alfred T. Ghiorzi, Ezra D. Rosenberg, Dept. of Justice, Land and Natural Resources Div., Washington, D.C., for Federal defendants.
David Mastbaum, Environmental Defense Fund, Denver, Colo., William J. Lockhart, Wayne McCormack, Salt Lake City, Utah, for defendants-intervenors Environmental Defense Fund, Inc., Sylvan Johnson, Leon Lippincott, Larry Little, Gary A. Kalpakoff, and East Canyon Irrigation Co.
William S. Curtiss, H. Anthony Ruckel, Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, Inc., Denver, Colo., Wayne G. Petty, Salt Lake City, Utah, for defendants Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Jet Mackelprang, Cynthia Myers, Susan Hittson, and Caroline Lippincott.
Anne M. Stirba, Asst. Atty. Gen., Carolyn Driscoll, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Salt Lake City, Utah, for plaintiff State of Utah.
Presently pending in this case are several motions and cross-motions for summary judgment. These motions were argued on September 30, 1982. Plaintiffs Utah International, Inc., and Nevada Electric Investment Co., (hereinafter referred to as "UII and NEICO") were represented by Ronald E. Van Buskirk, Allan N. Littman, and F. Alan Fletcher. The Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Jet Mackelprang, Cynthia Myers, Susan Hittson, and Caroline Lippincott (hereinafter referred to as the "Sierra Club defendants") were represented by William S. Curtiss. The Environmental Defense Fund, Inc., Sylvan Johnson, Leon Lippincott, Larry Little, Gary A. Kalpakoff, Joan A. Kalpakoff, and East Canyon Irrigation Company (hereinafter referred to as the "EDF defendants") were represented by William J. Lockhart and David Mastbaum. The State of Utah was represented by Anne M. Stirba. Representing the United States Department of Interior; James G. Watt, Secretary of Interior; the Office of Surface Mining; and Richard Harris, Director of the Office of Surface Mining (hereinafter referred to as the "Federal defendants"), were Alfred T. Ghiorzi, Walton Morris, and Joseph Anderson. After the hearing the court again reviewed the memoranda of counsel, the authorities cited therein and the affidavits and exhibits on file. Based upon the foregoing, the court renders the following decision.
This dispute arises out of a December 16, 1980, decision by the then Secretary of Interior Cecil D. Andrus whereby certain federal lands in Kane and Garfield Counties, Utah, were designated as unsuitable for surface coal mining. This designation was made pursuant to § 1272 of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (). The petition for a designation of unsuitability was filed on November 28, 1979, by the Environmental Defense Fund, Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, Sylvan Johnson, Leon Lippincott, Caroline Lippincott, Jet Mackelprang, Cynthia Myers, Susan Hittson, and Larry Little. The petition was submitted to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (hereinafter referred to as "OSM"). The petition area enclosed approximately 325,000 acres or more than 500 square miles. About 203,900 acres, excluding Bryce Canyon National Park, are owned by the federal government, 16,300 acres are owned by the State of Utah, and 68,600 acres are privately owned. The petition applied only to federal lands. Only a portion of the 203,900 acres of federal land included within the petition area was designated as unsuitable for surface mining. This area is commonly referred to as the Alton Coal Fields and lying generally northeast of these coal fields is Bryce Canyon National Park which is situated on the edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. UII and NEICO had obtained coal leases for areas located within the designated areas during the period 1961-1968 and claim to have spent substantial amounts in their development. The unsuitability designation precluded UII and NEICO from extracting the coal through surface mining. The original petition suggested several reasons why the area should be designated as unsuitable for surface mining. Contentions were made that the land could not be reclaimed following surface mining, that mining would adversely impact Bryce Canyon National Park and visitors to the park, that mining would adversely affect water resources and renewable resource lands (i.e., grazing and agricultural lands), and that alternative energy resources were available. The Secretary rejected all reasons contained in the petition except the adverse impact on the park and its visitors. 30 U.S.C. § 1272(a)(2) provides that an area may be designated as unsuitable if the surface coal mining operation would affect fragile or historical lands in a manner that could cause significant damage to important historic, cultural, scientific, and aesthetic values to natural systems. The decision by the Secretary that the land in question should be designated as unsuitable was made on this basis. This unsuitability petition was the first ever presented to the Secretary pursuant to 30 U.S.C. § 1272.
Following the Secretary's decision and on February 12, 1981, UII and NEICO filed suit in this court for an injunction and declaratory relief to set aside the Alton Decision on the basis that it was arbitrary and capricious, that it impaired plaintiffs' contractual rights under their coal leases with the United States and others and that it constituted a taking of private property for public purpose without due process of law.
On February 13, 1981, the State of Utah filed suit seeking a declaratory judgment that the decision of the Secretary was arbitrary and capricious in that it failed to consider state lands and denied the State of Utah the economic benefit of their lands. Although the Secretary's decision pertained only to federal land, there were approximately 12,400 acres of state owned school trust lands contained within the geographical boundaries of the designated area. The state alleges that if it were to allow development of these lands it would frustrate the purpose of the Secretary's designation. Furthermore, the state is fearful that the federal government will deny it the rightof-ways over federal land necessary for access to the state lands.
On March 13, 1981, the other parties to this lawsuit filed a complaint seeking injunctive and declaratory relief on the basis that the failure to designate all of the petitioned area as unsuitable was arbitrary and capricious and that in failing to do so the Secretary violated his trust responsibilities which require him to preserve and protect Bryce Canyon National Park for the benefit of the public. This suit requests only that that portion of the decision which failed to designate land as unsuitable be reviewed. These three cases were subsequently consolidated. The other facts which are relevant to this court's decision will be reviewed in the context of the issues to which they relate.
UII and NEICO complain in Paragraph 26 of their complaint that "the Secretary and his delegates failed to afford plaintiff a fair opportunity to protect their rights, in violation of the Act, the Administrative Procedure Act hereinafter referred to as the "APA" (5 U.S.C. § 551 et seq.), and the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution," by failing to require petitioners to assume a burden of proof, by disallowing cross-examination of adverse witnesses and by admitting evidence into the record without proper foundation. In essence UII and NEICO complain that the hearings should have been adjudicatory rather than legislative. The court understands UII and NEICO to argue that first the law requires that such a hearing be adjudicatory and second that even if the law does not so require, the regulations promulgated under the Act grant the Secretary discretion to require an adjudicatory hearing and that under the facts of this case it was an abuse of discretion not to have done so. UII and NEICO seek summary judgment to this effect.
The regulations establish "minimum procedures and standards for designating federal lands as unsuitable for ... surface coal mining ...." 30 C.F.R. § 769.1 (1980).1 Among other things, they provide that "no party...
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