Opinion ID: 388147
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Full Disclosure

Text: 30 Landowners also argue that the EIS failed to include an internal memorandum prepared by the BPA that compared Route E directly with Route D-1. One of the purposes of an EIS is to ensure full disclosure of the environmental consequences of a project. Trout Unlimited, 509 F.2d at 1282; Silva v. Lynn, 482 F.2d 1282, 1284-85 (1st Cir. 1973). 31 The omitted memorandum contained two tables. The first compared the six routes under consideration in terms of the following factors: length, parallel existing miles, river crossings, access road mileage, rangeland mileage, agricultural mileage, diagonal mileage, buildings near the right-of-way, Hanaford Reservation mileage, line cost per mile, and line cost total. While we agree that presenting data in tabular form is useful and would have aided the decision-makers' evaluation of the alternatives, practically all of the information contained in this table is within the EIS. The main information given in the table that is not in the EIS is the line cost per mile; however, this figure can be readily obtained by simply dividing the total cost by the number of miles for each route. Because the information contained in the first table is within the EIS, albeit not in tabular form, we conclude that the failure to include the table itself does not constitute non-disclosure of the environmental consequences of the project. 32 The second table that was omitted provided a breakdown of the overall cost figures for Routes E, D, and D-1. This table gave the costs of land, surveying, design, materials, clearing, construction, material handling, and administrative overhead. The total cost figure and the number of miles for each route are the only statistics given in this table that are also in the EIS. 33 The balancing of the environmental costs of a project against its economic and technological benefits is mandated by NEPA. 42 U.S.C. § 4332(2) (B) (1976); Calvert Cliffs' Coordinating Committee, Inc., 449 F.2d at 1113. In this case, the alleged non-disclosure concerns a non-environmental factor that BPA used to justify in part the decision to proceed with Route D-1. We agree that the policy of full disclosure applies equally to the economic and technological benefits of a project as to its environmental costs. If full disclosure were applied only to the environmental costs, the purposes of mandating a balancing analysis would be defeated. 34 But, we must examine the nature of the non-disclosure to determine whether it significantly added to the information available to decision-makers and to the public. This document consisted of a further breakdown of figures given in the EIS. It was not, for example, a study that contained wholly different information, the results of which were reported in a form that would not allow the public to respond or to know the basis of the agency's ultimate conclusion. See, e. g., Coalition for Canyon Preservation, 632 F.2d at 782 & n.3; Trout Unlimited, 509 F.2d at 1284. This was simply a more elaborate presentation of information already contained in the EIS. Obviously, the disclosure policy does not require an agency to include in the EIS all working papers that form the basis of the information presented in the report. An EIS must be a manageable document such that the information it contains or incorporates is in a readily usable form. (T)he test of EIS adequacy is pragmatic and the document will be examined to see if there has been a good faith attempt to identify and to discuss all foreseeable environmental consequences, Warm Springs Dam Task Force, 565 F.2d at 552, but we will not fly speck these documents. Lange v. Brinegar, 625 F.2d 812, 817 (9th Cir. 1980); Lathan, 506 F.2d at 693. There is no suggestion, and we cannot reasonably conclude, that the total cost figures provided in the EIS were distorted by the absence of the cost-breakdown, or that the failure to include this particular information was in bad faith. 35 The crucial figure that agency decision-makers and the public needed to know was the cost of each route. We recognize that the breakdown of that total cost figure provided additional insight into the reasons why one route is more expensive than another, but the EIS in effect provided this same insight in its general discussion of the merits of each route. For instance, agricultural land is likely to be more expensive than non-agricultural land; construction of a longer route is generally more expensive than construction of fewer miles. Thus, we cannot agree that the non-disclosure of the cost-breakdown between Routes D, D-1, and E is sufficient to render the whole EIS inadequate. See Warm Springs Dam Task Force v. Gribble, 621 F.2d 1017, 1026 (9th Cir. 1980) (per curiam); Hoe v. Alexander, 483 F.Supp. 746, 750 (D.Haw.1980).