Friends of the Earth v. William T. Coleman, Jr., Secretary U. S. Department of Transportation, Individually and in His Official Capacity

Before CHAMBERS and WRIGHT, Circuit Judges, and THOMPSON, District Judge.

Appellants are conservationists who sought in the district court injunctive and declaratory relief against the federal defendants for an alleged failure to comply with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) with reference to environmental impact statements. The project with which the appellants were concerned was the construction of a segment of Interstate Highway 5 (1-5) between Sacramento and Stockton, California. The state intervened through its Department of Transportation.

The district court found no genuine issues of material fact, held that the statement submitted for the project was sufficient as a matter of law, and granted summary judgment of dismissal. We affirm.

Appellants are two environmental organizations whose members regularly use the affected areas, and several individual users. Their challenge was directed not so much to the actual construction of the 1-5 segment, as to ap-pellees’ decision to obtain fill for the project from the site of a Peripheral Canal, proposed as part of the California Water Project to transfer water from the upper…