RECENT FEDERAL DECISIONS

August 2009

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District Court Overturns Fish and Wildlife Service Glen Canyon Dam BiOp but Upholds US Bureau of Reclamations’s Environmental Assessment
Grand Canyon Trust v. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, et. al., ___F.Supp.2d___

The U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona has issued a decision holding that a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)-issued biological opinion regarding the operational impacts of Glen Canyon Dam on the endangered humpback chub violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and granted summary judgment in favor of the Grand Canyon Trust (Trust). The court concluded that the biological opinion failed to meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act because FWS did not adequately explain why the new opinion differed from a previous biological opinion, nor did it explain why the data used was the best available. In granting summary judgment in favor of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau), the court reasoned that the Bureau’s environmental assessment (EA) covering the operational impacts of the dam addressed the necessary number of alternatives required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and did not need to also address the alternatives recommended by the Trust.