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Citizens Against Rails-To-Trails v. Surface Transportation Board

Surface transportation board could authorize Trails Act use of abandoned railroad right-of-way without applying National Environmental Policy Act or conducting separate environmental assessment.

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Argued September 6, 2001

On Petition for Review of an Order of the Surface Transportation Board

A coalition of Idaho land owners denominated Citizens Against Rails-to-Trails (“CART”) petition for review of the decision of the Surface Transportation Board in Union Pacific Railroad Company–Abandonment–Wallace Branch, ID, STB Docket No. AB-33 (June 26, 2000). In that decision the Board authorized Union Pacific to salvage 71.5 miles of its Wallace Branch rail line in Idaho, subject to four environmental conditions, and also authorized the right-of-way to be used as a trail pursuant to the National Trails System Act, 16 U.S.C. s 1247(d) (2000) (“Trails Act”). CART challenges only the authorization of interim trail use.*fn1 It contends that the Board was required to assess the environmental impacts of trail use and erred in not disallowing trail use because the right-of-way is contaminated. The Board determined that the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), 42 U.S.C. ss 4321-4343 (1982), does not apply to the Trails Act, and that the Trails Act does not otherwise require an environmental assessment prior to issuance of a certificate for interim trail use. Because CART fails to show that these determinations were contrary to law or unreasonable, we deny the petition.

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