Opinion ID: 2585012
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Challenges to the EIS/EIR

Text: EPIC contends that DFG's CEQA findings were insufficient. Under CEQA, in Public Resources Code section 21081, no public agency shall approve or carry out a project for which an environmental impact report has been certified which identifies one or more significant effects on the environment that would occur if the project is approved or carried out unless ... [ถ] ... [t]he public agency makes one or more of the following findings with respect to each significant effect: [ถ] (1) Changes or alterations have been required in, or incorporated into, the project which mitigate or avoid the significant effects on the environment. [ถ] (2) Those changes or alterations are within the responsibility and jurisdiction of another public agency and have been, or can and should be, adopted by that other agency. [ถ] (3) Specific economic, legal, social, technological, or other considerations, including considerations for the provision of employment opportunities for highly trained workers, make infeasible the mitigation measures or alternatives identified in the environmental impact report. EPIC contends that the final EIS/EIR identified several significant environmental impacts but failed to make one of the three findings set forth in Public Resources Code section 21081. More specifically, it contends that the EIS/EIR concluded there would be long-term and short-term adverse impacts on the northern spotted owl, red tree vole, Pacific fisher, and other late seral habitat species, but that DFG failed to make the required findings regarding each of these significant impacts, as required by Public Resources Code section 21081 and the CEQA guidelines. (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 14, ง 15000 et seq.; hereafter CEQA Guidelines; see CEQA Guidelines, ง 15091).) In addressing this claim, it first must be kept in mind that the project for which the EIS/EIR was prepared was the HCP/SYP, and that the HCP was specifically designed to mitigate significant impacts on wildlife. In the part of the EIS/EIR devoted to the northern spotted owl, for example, the EIS/EIR concludes that the project will have less than significant effects on the species, stating that although effects may be significant in short and longterm due to potential substantial decline in population, HCP mitigation and monitoring was expected to minimize and mitigate effects to less than significant. The HCP incorporates extensive conservation measures including the selection of at least 80 activity sites that will maintain suitable spotted owl habitat. Similar conclusions were reached as to the other species EPIC identifies in its brief as being inadequately addressed. Moreover, in the case of the coho salmon, also singled out by EPIC, the EIS/EIR found that the Aquatics Conservation Plan in the HCP would fully mitigate impacts on that species. Therefore, because the EIS/EIR was for an HCP the purpose of which was to mitigate the effect of Pacific Lumber's activities on wildlife to a less than significant level, it was not error for the EIS/EIR to conclude that HCP did not create significant wildlife impacts. We therefore find no merit in EPIC's argument that the CEQA findings were inadequate.
EPIC contends that the EIS/EIR failed to analyze or address the project's cumulative impacts to the marbled murrelet, northern spotted owl, and coho salmon by failing to identify past projects, including Pacific Lumber's previous intensive logging. We conclude that on the record before us, EPIC has failed to identify prejudicial error. Public Resources Code section 21083, subdivision (b), provides that the CEQA guidelines prepared by the Office of Planning and Research should address a situation in which [t]he possible effects of a project are individually limited but cumulatively considerable. As used in this paragraph, `cumulatively considerable' means that the incremental effects of an individual project are considerable when viewed in connection with the effects of past projects, the effects of other current projects, and the effects of probable future projects. (Pub. Resources Code, ง 21083, subd. (b)(2), italics added.) Pursuant to this statutory mandate, the Office of Planning and Research has promulgated section 15130 of the CEQA Guidelines, which states in subdivision (b), in pertinent part: The discussion of cumulative impacts shall reflect the severity of the impacts and their likelihood of occurrence, but the discussion need not provide as great detail as is provided for the effects attributable to the project alone. The discussion should be guided by the standards of practicality and reasonableness.... The following elements are necessary to an adequate discussion of significant cumulative impacts: [ถ] (1) Either: [ถ] (A) A list of past, present, and probable future projects producing related or cumulative impacts, including, if necessary, those projects outside the control of the agency, or [ถ] (B) A summary of projections contained in an adopted general plan or related planning document, or in a prior environmental document which has been adopted or certified, which described or evaluated regional or areawide conditions contributing to the cumulative impact. Any such planning document shall be referenced and made available to the public at a location specified by the lead agency. The CEQA Guidelines further elaborate on the use of prior environmental documents in section 15130, subdivision (d): Previously approved land use documents such as general plans, specific plans, and local coastal plans may be used in cumulative impact analysis. A pertinent discussion of cumulative impacts contained in one or more previously certified EIRs may be incorporated by reference pursuant to the provisions for tiering and program EIRs. No further cumulative impacts analysis is required when a project is consistent with a general, specific, master or comparable programmatic plan where the lead agency determines that the regional or areawide cumulative impacts of the proposed project have already been adequately addressed, as defined in section 15152[, subdivision] (f), in a certified EIR for that plan. DFG and Pacific Lumber concede that there is no list of past, present, and probable future projects producing related or cumulative impacts. They contend that they employed the second approach to cumulative impacts: A summary of projections contained in an adopted general plan or related planning document.... (CEQA Guidelines, ง 15130, subd. (b)(1)(B).) They do not identify any specific document or documents containing the information about cumulative impacts. Rather, they contend that the EIS/EIR itself has an adequate analysis of current population status of the various species that necessarily entails consideration of the effects of past projects. Thus, although the EIS/EIR does not refer to earlier planning documents, it contains within itself a great deal of information regarding current conditions of critical species and their habitat equivalent to what would be contained in general plans or similar planning documents. As DFG explained at oral argument, the SYP/HCP for which the EIS/EIR was prepared was the first master planning document for Pacific Lumber's holdings, and so no previous planning document could be relied on in making its projections. EPIC argues that the lack of discussion of past projects means that the EIS/EIR ignores the reality that logging, and in particular logging by Pacific Lumber, is responsible for the substantial loss of suitable habitat for various species. EPIC's argument is that placing current population and habitat conditions in the historical context of Pacific Lumber's and other timber companies' role in causing those conditions puts that information, and information regarding projections of future habitat and population loss, in a different perspective. Inasmuch as an EIS/EIR is primarily an informational document (see Pub. Resources Code, ง 21000), the public and the decision makers informed by that document would be more critical of Pacific Lumber's planned logging activities, and more skeptical of the probable success of its mitigation activity, were it informed in the EIS/EIR of the extent of Pacific Lumber's and other timber companies' responsibility for current environmental conditions. We agree with EPIC that the statutory injunction to assess the incremental effects of an individual project ... in connection with the effects of past projects, the effects of other current projects, and the effects of probable future projects (Pub. Resources Code, ง 21083, subd. (b)(2), italics added) signifies an obligation to consider the present project in the context of a realistic historical account of relevant prior activities that have had significant environmental impacts. Such historical accounting assists, for example, in understanding development trends. (See Governor's Off. of Planning & Research, General Plan Guidelines (1990) pp. 44-46 [need to understand population, environmental and economic trends, including historical data, to guide development].) This historical information also may help to identify previous activities that have caused intensive environmental impacts in a given area, the full effects of which may not yet be manifested, thereby disclosing potential environmental vulnerabilities that would not be revealed merely by cataloging current conditions. (See Environmental Protection Information Center v. Johnson, supra, 170 Cal.App.3d at p. 624 [analysis of past clearcutting may reveal extent of present danger of hillside erosion].) We review an agency's decision regarding the inclusion of information in the cumulative impacts analysis under an abuse of discretion standard. The primary determination is whether it was reasonable and practical to include the projects and whether, without their inclusion, the severity and significance of the cumulative impacts were reflected adequately. ( Kings County Farm Bureau v. City of Hanford (1990) 221 Cal.App.3d 692, 723 [270 Cal.Rptr. 650].) Although courts have grappled with the abuse-of-discretion issue with respect to the inclusion of pending and possible future projects (see id. at pp. 721-724), none have addressed the adequacy of an analysis of projects that have already been completed. As the above discussion indicates, an EIS/EIR must reasonably include information about past projects to the extent such information is relevant to the understanding of the environmental impacts of the present project considered cumulatively with other pending and possible future projects. Although such historical context is somewhat muted in the EIS/EIR, it is present to some degree. The EIS/EIR does acknowledge population declines and degradation of habitat, including increased water temperature and sediment buildup in streams and loss of habitat for various species. For example, the EIS/EIR contains detailed information about the current population and distribution and loss of suitable habitat for the marbled murrelet, the northern spotted owl, and the coho salmon. The report also acknowledges, albeit somewhat obliquely, that past logging practices are at least in part responsible for this loss and degradation. EPIC argues in effect that the EIS/EIR substantially understates the effects of past timber harvest practices on various species, and that a more realistic account of those effects can be found in various public comments made to the draft EIS/EIR and draft SYP/HCP. As noted, the discussion of cumulative impacts should be guided by the standards of practicality and reasonableness. Although there are conflicting views about whether the EIS/EIR's discussion of past logging activity was adequate, on the record before us we cannot say that this discussion of the effects of previous logging activity was unreasonable. EPIC also claims that the EIS/EIR fails to consider cumulative impacts of future activities in the marbled murrelet conservation areas. These are the dozen or so areas of marbled murrelet habitat ranging from 300 to 1,400 acres that are protected for the most part from logging and certain other activities and in which various conservation activities will occur. Such activities will be implemented in consultation with and reviewed by DFG and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. EPIC contends that notwithstanding these restrictions, there is no cumulative assessment of the impact of the activities that will be taking place within these areas, including some mining and road construction. We disagree. Given the extensive analysis of the impacts of the project on the marbled murrelet and other wildlife noted above, and the adoption of these conservation areas as part of the HCP to mitigate the environmental impacts of Pacific Lumber's activities, we do not believe that CEQA requires separate cumulative impact analysis in connection with the adoption of these conservation areas. The final EIS/EIR concludes that creating these areas will on balance be beneficial to the marbled murrelet and other wildlife. Absent a successful challenge to this conclusion based on the lack of substantial evidence, a challenge that is not before us, we will defer to the government agencies' implicit conclusion that no additional environmental analysis of this measure is required.