ELR Citation: 41 ELR 20281
No(s). 10-35646 (9th Cir. Aug 19, 2011)

The Ninth Circuit held that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation took the requisite "hard look" under NEPA in its analysis of a proposed incremental drawdown of water from Lake Roosevelt in Washington state. Although a portion of the EA exclusively devoted to cumulative effects is conclusory and unenlightening, reading the EA as a whole reveals that the Bureau understood and accounted for the cumulative effects of past projects. And while the Bureau took several steps toward implementing the drawdown project before drafting the EA, it scrupulously adhered to NEPA's timing requirements. The court, therefore, affirmed a lower court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the agency.