SF Bay Conservation and Development Commission v. United States Army Corps of Engineers

I. INTRODUCTION

17 This is an APA action challenging certain plans the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 18 has made regarding how and when it will periodically dredge two specific shipping 19 channels in the San Francisco Bay to keep them navigable by large ships. Plaintiff is an 20 agency of the State of California—the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development 21 Commission (“BCDC”).1 22 Environmental regulation of the Bay implicates a host of federal and state agencies, 23 24

25 1 A private environmental group, San Francisco Baykeeper, was permitted to intervene as an additional plaintiff and has joined with BCDC in the present motions. 26

27 1 laws, and regulations. Further complicating matters, in many instances federal law 2 delegates various policy making and enforcement powers to the state, such that state 3 regulations then effectively have the force of federal law and cannot be overridden by a 4 federal agency’s rules. 5 The parties have brought cross-motions for summary judgment. Navigating through 6 the river of applicable laws and rules, the end of the passage finds defendants entitled to 7 summary judgment because BCDC cannot show the Corps…