ELR Citation: ELR 20109
No(s). 74-1823 (D.D.C. Dec 5, 1975)

The U.S. Navy is enjoined from transferring its Oceanographic Center from a suburb of Washington, D.C., to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, until a new final environmental impact statement has been prepared. Plaintiffs, a number of naval oceanographic employees who do not wish to move to Mississippi and the county in which the center is presently located, have standing to challenge the sufficiency of the Navy's compliance with NEPA. The present impact statement fails to comply with the requirements of the Act in that it did not consider the possible cumulative impact of existing Army and NASA proposals for building an ammunition plant and expanding the space shuttle program at the same Bay St. Louis site. The EIS also failed to examine possible methods of mitigating the plain problems that the move will entail respecting availability of adequate housing and schools for low- and moderate-income groups and racial minorities among the center's employees. The Secretary of Defense must therefore objectively and in good faith reconsider, in light of the amended impact statement, the decision to consolidate the Naval Oceanographic Program at Bay St. Louis.

Counsel for Plaintiffs
Bruce J. Terris
1908 Sunderland Place, NW
Washington, DC 20037
(202) 785-1992

Counsel for Defendants
Irwin Schroeder
Department of Justice
Washington, DC 20530
(202) 739-2730