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Washington County, North Carolina v. U.S. Department of the Navy

United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina

357 F. Supp. 2d 861 (2005)

Facts

The United States Department of the Navy (defendant) prepared an environmental-impact statement (EIS) regarding its plan to build a landing field for aircraft training near an important habitat for migratory waterfowl. Several counties and environmental groups (the waterfowl advocates) (plaintiffs) filed suit in federal district court, claiming that the Navy had failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in preparing the EIS and seeking a permanent injunction to halt construction until the Navy complied with NEPA. The waterfowl advocates argued that the Navy had failed to fairly consider alternatives but instead had selectively presented evidence to support a predetermined site selection. In so doing, according to the waterfowl advocates, the Navy misstated study conclusions in order to minimize impacts on the birds, failed to conduct adequate site visits during the relevant bird migration periods, and failed to adequately study the impacts of bird-aircraft strikes but instead attempted to extrapolate from data derived from smaller bird species in less concentrated populations. The Navy responded that it had done all that was required under NEPA by taking a hard look at the environmental impacts, and that NEPA did not prohibit an agency from having a preference in the outcome when preparing an EIS.

Rule of Law

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Issue

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Holding and Reasoning (Boyle, J.)

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A "yes" or "no" answer to the question framed in the issue section;
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