San Francisco Baykeeper v. United States Army Corps of Engineers

To accommodate new larger ships, the Port of Oakland (the port) proposed projects to dredge the port’s shipping channels (the dredging project) and to create new container berths and cargo terminals (the berths project). The Army Corps of Engineers (the corps) (defendant) completed an environmental-impact statement (EIS) for the dredging project and an environmental assessment (EA) for the berths project. The EIS included a risk assessment analyzing the dredging project’s likelihood of introducing invasive species into the San Francisco Bay’s ecosystem through ballast-water discharges, the only quantifiable way to assess the invasive-species risk. Ballast-water, the water taken on and discharged by ships for balance and maintenance, introduced foreign invasive species into local ecosystems and caused significant ecological and economic damage. The risk assessment measured the likelihood of invasive-species introduction by comparing the volume of ballast-water discharges before the dredging project’s completion with projected rates after completion (the discharge measurement). The corps considered additional ballast-water factors, such as ballast-water source, transit time, and discharge location, but concluded that an established methodology had not been identified to operationalize these factors. Based on the discharge measurement, the corps concluded that the dredging project would decrease ballast-water discharges because larger ships not requiring ballast water would use the port after the project’s completion. The berths-project EA concluded the project would not have a significant environmental impact if the project was completed in conjunction with the dredging project. San Francisco Baykeeper (SFB) (plaintiff) challenged the corps’ conclusions for the projects, arguing that the EIS and the EA’s discussion of invasive-species risks were inadequate and that the corps’ risk assessment was arbitrary and capricious because the corps had failed to consider the additional ballast-water factors in the discharge measurement.