ELR Citation: ELR 20222
No(s). 04-2012 (D.D.C. Oct 25, 2006)

A district court granted in part and denied in part cross-motions for summary judgment in a case challenging the National Park Service's (NPS') decision to exempt from agency oversight directional drilling activities in and around Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas. Directional drilling refers to the practice of drilling at a slant adjacent to and outside of park boundaries to extract privately owned oil and gas from beneath the park unit surface. Directional drilling may be exempt from NPS oversight if a regional director determines that the operations within a park unit pose no significant threat of damage to park resources. Here, the administrative records demonstrate that for each of the three challenged decisions, NPS did consider impacts on the Big Thicket National preserve from surface drilling activities outside the Preserve pursuant to its obligations under the Organic Act and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). However, NPS' ultimate conclusions that the drilling activities would not result in impairment of park resources and values under the Organic Act, or a significant impact on the human environment under NEPA, are not supported by reasoned explanations and, hence, are arbitrary and capricious and an abuse of discretion. On remand, the NPS must prepare an environmental assessment for each site.