You are here

Split Appellate Court Erects Another Roadblock to World's Largest Dump Next to Joshua Tree National Park

Share

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has found errors in a lower court's handling of a case that could result in the world's largest landfill being established next to Joshua Tree National Park. Photo of beavertail cactus in bloom at Joshua Tree by QT Luong, www.terragalleria.com/parks, used with permission.

What would you think if, on the way to your favorite national park, you had to drive past the world's largest landfill? One that would take in 20,000 tons of garbage a day, six days a week. While the prospect of such a landfill adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park remains on the drawing board, it's less likely to break ground any time soon thanks to an appellate court's ruling.

In its ruling Tuesday, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a decision that both upheld portions of a lower court's ruling on the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's approval of the landfill and rejected portions of that ruling. While it would be premature to say this ruling hammered the final nail into the coffin of the 4,654-acre landfill proposed by Kaiser Ventures LLC, it does increase the odds against the project going forward, particularly with the change in administrations in Washington, D.C.

Kaiser officials say they are mulling their options, one of which would be to ask the entire 9th Circuit to consider their appeal of U.S. District Judge Robert J. Timlin's ruling.

"Our steadfast belief continues to be that the Eagle Mountain landfill's environmental analysis was more than adequate and that the proper legal procedures were followed in completing the land exchange," said Rick Stoddard, Kaiser's chairman and chief executive officer. "We are gratified that this was recognized by Judge Trott in his dissenting opinion."

The so-called Eagle Mountain Landfill long has been envisioned by Kaiser, which has pursued it for 20-some years and, according to the 9th Circuit's ruling, has spent upwards of $50 million pursuing it. The problem, according to environmental and park advocate groups, is that the site eyed by Kaiser not only is wrapped on three sides by the national park, but it also would impact land that supports the region's largest and healthiest bighorn sheep herd.

"Folks need to be aware that this is the most significant threat that Joshua Tree faces," Mike Cipra, the California desert program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, said Wednesday.

To make the landfill happen, Kaiser needed to orchestrate a land exchange with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which owns land that surrounds an old iron ore mine that Kaiser operated from 1948 until 1983. Twenty years ago Kaiser approached the BLM with the land swap proposal, offering 2,846 of its acres for 3,481 BLM acres. In 1997, the BLM issued its final environmental impact statement on the swap and issued a record of decision, which triggered the legal battle that continues to this day.

In its mixed ruling, which sent the matter back to the lower court, the 9th Circuit's majority:

* Agreed with the district court's decision that the BLM had inaccurately appraised its lands for the swap. While the BLM's appraisal did not consider the value of the acres as a landfill, the appellate court said it should have in determining the actual value for the exchange.

* Agreed with the district court that the BLM did not thoroughly consider alternatives to the landfill as proposed by Kaiser, but rather "adopted Kaiser’s interests as its own to craft a purpose
and need statement so narrowly drawn as to foreordain approval of the land exchange."

* Reversed the district court's finding that the BLM failed to adequately address impacts to bighorn sheep posed by the proposed landfill.

The EIS includes a 56-page report on Bighorn sheep. The report is based on an extensive monitoring study, utilizing sheep capture, radio telemetry, and genetic testing methods. The EIS states that any installed tortoise-proof fencing will be designed to allow for sheep movement. The EIS explains that the buffer zone constituting “644 acres of potential habitat would remain as natural open space around the periphery of the proposed landfill. This habitat would provide a buffer zone between the landfill operation and relocated sheep population.” Though the EIS does not “exactly specify” what the buffer zone entails, it does contain a “reasonably complete” discussion of this mitigation measure.

* Agreed with the lower court that the BLM failed to adequately consider how nutrients introduced into the desert landscape by the landfill might impact that landscape.

In a biting dissent, Judge Stephen S. Trott ridiculed the country's environmental laws and agonized at times over the snail's pace the case has taken through the federal court system.

What sane person would want to attempt to acquire property for a landfill? Our well-meaning environmental laws have unintentionally made such an endeavor a fool’s errand. This case is yet another example of how daunting — if not impossible — such an adventure can be. Ulysses thought he encountered fearsome obstacles as he headed home to Ithaca on the Argo, but nothing that compares to the “due process” of unchecked environmental law. Not the Cyclops, not the Sirens, and not even Scylla and Charybdis can measure up to the obstacles Kaiser has faced in this endeavor.

Kaiser, the judge noted, was proposing a landfill that would abide by "new Environmental Protection Agency guidelines." Additionally, the land in question was located mostly around the company's spent iron mines, he said. Furthermore, he wrote, "Kaiser had actively engaged the National Park Service (“NPS”) in an ongoing process designed to protect Joshua Tree National Park. As described by the Interior Board of Land Appeals (“IBLA”), the agreement reached 'gives NPS precisely what they had requested as early as 1992 — a comprehensive, long-term monitoring and mitigation program, which runs for the life of the project and is specifically tailored to detect and to address any unforeseen impacts on JTNP.'”

After tracking the history of the case and outlining his dissent for 49 pages, Judge Trott signed off by stating:

I end with the Technical Advisory Panel’s evaluation: “the proposed Eagle Mountain Landfill could well become one of the world’s safest landfills and a model for others to emulate.”
Don’t hold your breath.

Comments

I am sick and tired of Industry targeting my national parks. Seems to me there are a lot of open spaces out there that can be better used instead of our parks being poluted by their dirty businesses.


You aren't going to drive past the former mine / proposed landfill on your way to JOTR: the mine is in the "hole" intruding into the park from the SE, and there are no entrance roads anywhere near there (there is a 4wd road, but it has a gate a couple of miles outside the boundary of JOTR). The issue is the lights & noise and wildlife impact immediately adjacent to the wilderness parts of JOTR.

The basics of the trash proposal are to fill an abandoned Kaiser Steel open pit iron mine with trash hauled from the greater LA area via dozens of dedicated (unit) trains per day. Sounds reasonable: better than filling in any more coastal canyons, and the mine already has the usual chemical problems of abandoned open pit mines. But as a solid waste facility it becomes a 24/7/365 (now changed to 16hr/6day/week) huge industrial zone with noise & lights affecting what otherwise is one of the quietest places in southern California. The vehicular traffic has direct impacts on tortoises (they're proposing drift fences to keep the tortoises off the roads & presumably the railroad, but ravens & coyotes have already learned to patrol drift fences in search of easy meals). The trash (even if a tiny amount blows away) will subsidize and greatly increase the local raven population, leading to subsidized predation rates on tortoises and plenty of less charismatic species. Because ravens fly tens of miles and coyotes are quite vagile, too, the increased populations around the mine/dump will affect wildlife within the park boundaries. And, the last time I read any of the proposal in detail, the fine print is that for the first 75 or so years, the trash doesn't actually go into the open pit mine (which has potentially valuable ore still in it), it fills surrounding canyons that are otherwise pretty good habitat for the desert bighorn sheep.

The 644 acre buffer zone is a cruel joke by mathematically impaired lawyers & judges. 640 acres is a square mile; the footprint (4654 acres) is 7 1/4 square miles. If that area were circular (minimum perimeter for the area so best case), the circumference would be 9 miles, so if that wonderful buffer zone to mitigate effects on bighorn sheep goes all the way around the landfill, it's on the order of .1 miles or 175 yards wide. [I somewhat question the dissenting judge's knowledge of Greek mythology, too: Ulysses wasn't on the Argo, that was Jason's ship.]

My understanding of the court case is that it is about the specifics of the land swap. The 2,846 acres offered by Kaiser are non-contiguous parcels along and including their Eagle Mountain Railroad right of way, so part of the deal is that they get to run a railroad on the land they're trading to BLM. The land they want surrounds the actual mine
http://www.ccaej.org/projects/desert_protection/pe_9_21_05_map.html
BLM was sued by private parties including NPCA for undervaluing their land, not considering a sufficient range of alternatives in their EIS, and not meeting the requirements of managing their land to have no adverse effects on surrounding federal lands. [The original 1950s agreement gave Kaiser the right to mine on the land, but didn't give it the land. In 1952 465 acres were transferred to Kaiser Steel for the town of Eagle Mountain and their operations. I have no idea of the current status of what land Kaiser Ventures actually owns in the footprint, but it appears that something changed before the 1999 land swap. The Chaipieds, parties to the suit, claim that the 1952 agreement says that if the land is not used for mining for 7 consecutive years it will revert to the public for its highest and best use.]


Take a look at the area in Goggle Earth (type: "Yucca Road, Eagle Mountain, CA 92239" in the seach.) Yikes! Looks like Kaiser has done a pretty good job of raping the land over a very large area. Amazing...


Thanks for the article and the very informative comment. I've seen nothing about this in the LA Times.


LA Times: (not much)

Desert Sun (a map)

Press-Enterprise

You can google news for more; the 2005 stories tend to be more informative


Add comment

CAPTCHA

This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.

The Essential RVing Guide

The Essential RVing Guide to the National Parks

The National Parks RVing Guide, aka the Essential RVing Guide To The National Parks, is the definitive guide for RVers seeking information on campgrounds in the National Park System where they can park their rigs. It's available for free for both iPhones and Android models.

This app is packed with RVing specific details on more than 250 campgrounds in more than 70 parks.

You'll also find stories about RVing in the parks, some tips if you've just recently turned into an RVer, and some planning suggestions. A bonus that wasn't in the previous eBook or PDF versions of this guide are feeds of Traveler content: you'll find our latest stories as well as our most recent podcasts just a click away.

So whether you have an iPhone or an Android, download this app and start exploring the campgrounds in the National Park System where you can park your rig.