SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – The U.S. Department of Defense must reassess the impacts of a controversial new military base on Okinawa in order to protect the endangered Okinawa dugong, a manatee-like marine mammal, the Ninth Circuit ruled Monday.
Affirming in part and reversing in part, a three-judge panel ruled that the Center for Biological Diversity and its American and Japanese co-plaintiffs have standing to seek declaratory and injunctive relief over the base, known as the Futenma Replacement Facility, and that neither set of claims present political questions that prohibit judicial review.
The plaintiffs seek a ruling that the Defense Department failed to consider in its National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) analysis whether the base would harm the dugongs, in violation of that statute and the Administrative Procedure Act. They also want the military's findings vacated, and an injunction barring construction until the military issues an NHPA-compliant analysis.
The government, however, had insisted that the plaintiffs didn't have standing to bring the case and that the court shouldn't consider it because it implicated foreign relations with Japan.
But on Monday, the Ninth Circuit panel found otherwise.
"[C]ourts are able to weigh equitable considerations when security or foreign affairs interests are at stake," Circuit Judge Mary Murguia wrote for the panel. "To hold otherwise would introduce an overbroad rule in conflict with controlling precedent."
The dugong, a marine mammal with smooth, dark gray or bronze skin, a fluked tail and downturned muzzle, lives in seagrass beds in the shallow coastal waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans. The animals grow up to 9 feet long, weigh up to 1,000 pounds and can live as long as 70 years.
The Okinawa dugong, a genetically isolated population inhabiting the waters east of Okinawa, are critically endangered. Overhunting and a fragile habitat have taken a toll: The Mammalogical Society of Japan estimated in 1997 that there are roughly 50 left on Okinawa.
The dugong is significant in traditional Okinawan culture and mythology, and the Japanese government has designated them for protection under Japan’s Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties.
But the Futenma replacement base is being built next to Henoko and Oura bays, and includes a V-shaped set of runways built on top of landfill dumped into the bays. The plaintiffs say the dumping could ravage the seagrass beds on which the dugongs feed, and that noise, excessive light and pollution from construction could harm the animals.
The plaintiffs aren't alone in opposing the new base. Okinawans have long resented its predecessor –U.S. Marine Corps Air Base Futenma – which sits in the middle of a bustling city. After U.S. military men raped a 12-year-old girl on Okinawa in the mid-1990s, the United States and Japan agreed in 2006 to move Futenma from Ginowan City to the more sparsely populated area around Camp Schwab. But most residents want it moved off Okinawa completely, to Japan’s main island.