Grand Canyon Trust v. United States Bureau of Reclamation

Grand Canyon Trust appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the United States Bureau of Reclamation (“Reclamation”) and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) rejecting the Trust’s claims alleging that Reclamation and FWS violated the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act in the operation of the Glen Canyon Dam. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We dismiss as moot in part and affirm in part.

I

Grand Canyon Trust (“the Trust”) is an organization devoted to the protection and restoration of the canyon country of the Colorado Plateau. Reclamation and FWS are agencies within the Department of the Interior. Reclamation is responsible for the operation of the Glen Canyon Dam (“the Dam”) situated on the Colorado River, and FWS is responsible for the protection of the humpback chub, a fish that exists primarily in the relatively inaccessible canyons of the Colorado River and that is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”). Intervenor-Appellees are the seven Colorado River Basin States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah,…