Evans

OPINION AND ORDER ON CROSS-MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

In this environmental litigation, the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment are currently before the Court. For the reasons set forth below, each parties’ motion for summary judgment is granted in part and denied in part.

1. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs, various environmental organizations and a concerned individual, seek a permanent injunction against federal officials to prevent the United States Navy’s peacetime use of a low frequency sonar system for training, testing and routine operations. This new technology, Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (“SUR-TASS”) Low Frequency Active Sonar (“LFA”), sends out intense sonar pulses at low frequencies that travel hundreds of miles in order to timely detect increasingly quiet enemy submarines. Plaintiffs charge that the National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS”) improperly approved use of LFA in as much as 75% of the world’s oceans in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (“MMPA”), the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”), and the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”). Plaintiffs also claim that the Navy participated in the ESA violation and issued an inadequate…