Opinion ID: 487461
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Readability or Understandability Requirement

Text: 22 In order to achieve the purpose of informing decisionmakers and the public of potential environmental consequences of a proposed agency action, the CEQ regulations require: 23 Environmental impact statements shall be written in plain language and may use appropriate graphics so that decisionmakers and the public can readily understand them. Agencies should employ writers of clear prose or editors to write, review, or edit statements, which will be based upon the analysis and supporting data from the natural and social sciences and the environmental design arts. 24 40 C.F.R. Sec. 1502.8 (1986); see also id. Sec. 1500.2(b) (stating that an EIS shall be concise, clear, and to the point); id. Sec. 1502.1 (same); id. Sec. 1502.2(a) (stating that an EIS shall be analytic rather than encyclopedic); id. Sec. 1500.4(e) (clear format); id. Sec. 1502.10 (clear presentation). Appellants argue that neither the main text of the 1985 EIS nor the worst case analysis in the 1986 Addendum meets this requirement. 25 This circuit has not defined the level of readability that Sec. 1502.8 requires. The district court stated that an EIS must translate technical data into terms that render it an effective disclosure of the environmental impacts of a proposed project to all of its intended readership. OEC II, 614 F.Supp. at 665. The scant case law indicates that an EIS must translate technical data into terms that effectively disclose environmental impacts to its intended readership, including interested members of the public, National Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. United States Nuclear Regulatory Comm'n, 685 F.2d 459, 487 n. 149 (D.C.Cir.1982), rev'd on other grounds sub nom. Baltimore Gas & Elec. Co. v. NRDC, 462 U.S. 87, 103 S.Ct. 2246, 76 L.Ed.2d 437 (1983), that an EIS should be written in clear, concise, easily readable form so as to provide a reasonably intelligent non-professional an understanding of the environmental impact, Warm Springs Dam Task Force v. Gribble, 78 F.Supp. 240, 252 (N.D.Cal.1974), aff'd, 621 F.2d 1017 (9th Cir.1980); see also Upper West Fork River Watershed Ass'n v. Corps of Eng'rs, United States Army, 414 F.Supp. 908, 930 (N.D.W.Va.1976), aff'd mem., 556 F.2d 576 (4th Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1010, 98 S.Ct. 720, 54 L.Ed.2d 752 (1978), and that an EIS must be organized and written in language understandable to the general public and at the same time contain sufficient technical and scientific data to alert specialists to particular problems within their expertise, Alabama ex rel. Baxley v. Corps of Eng'rs of the United States Army, 411 F.Supp. 1261, 1267 (N.D.Ala.1976); see also Sierra Club v. Froehlke, 359 F.Supp. 1289, 1342-43 (S.D.Tex.1973) ( 'understandable to non-technical minds' ), rev'd on other grounds sub nom. Sierra Club v. Callaway, 499 F.2d 982 (5th Cir.1974) (quoting Environmental Defense Fund, Inc. v. Corps of Eng'rs of the United States Army, 348 F.Supp. 916, 933 (N.D.Miss.1972), aff'd, 492 F.2d 1123 (5th Cir.1974)). 26 We hold that Sec. 1502.8 imposes a requirement that an EIS must be organized and written so as to be readily understandable by governmental decisionmakers and by interested non-professional laypersons likely to be affected by actions taken under the EIS. The main text of an EIS will routinely include some scientific data and reasoning necessary to apprise decisionmakers and the public of potential environmental consequences. The more complicated the science underlying those consequences is, the more challenging the preparer's task will be to convey the information clearly. Overly technical material and supporting data, however, should ordinarily appear in appendices. See 40 C.F.R. Sec. 1502.18 (1986). 27 In this inquiry, we adhere to the general principle that the reviewing court must make a pragmatic judgment as to the adequacy of an EIS. If so inclined, the parties may introduce evidence concerning the reading level of the affected public and expert testimony on any indicia of the inherent readability of an EIS, as was done in this case. See OEC III, 636 F.Supp. at 634-36 (discussing expert testimony on the theoretical constructs of readability and on computer analyses of number of words per sentence and length of words). But the district court must also read the document. Its conclusion on whether an EIS is understandable under Sec. 1502.8 is essentially a factual finding, which we review for clear error. 28 We have reviewed the evidence and read the 1985 EIS. The district court's reasons for finding the main text of the 1985 EIS readable are given in OEC II, 614 F.Supp. at 665. We too find the main text clearly organized and sufficiently well written. The discussion of certain risks is at times dry and dense, but accessible to the interested layperson. We do not have a  'definite and firm conviction'  that the district court committed a mistake. See United States v. Skokomish Indian Tribe, 764 F.2d 670, 673 (9th Cir.1985) (quoting Anderson v. Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 573, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 1511, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985)). 29 The worst case analysis in the 1986 Addendum presents an additional question. We agree with the district court that the readability requirement of Sec. 1502.8 applies to the worst case analysis. When required, a worst case analysis is central to a full understanding of potential environmental impacts of proposed agency action. Clearly conveying that information to decisionmakers and to the public is as important as the identification of known adverse environmental impacts. As noted above, an EIS may include appendices to provide technical material that supports or amplifies a worst case analysis for the benefit of specialists, see 40 C.F.R. Secs. 1502.18, 1502.24 (1986), and such supplemental technical material may be exempt from the readability requirement. But an agency may not circumvent its obligation to provide a clear assessment of environmental impacts simply by placing a worst case analysis in an appendix. 30 As with the main text of the 1985 EIS, the district court's finding on the readability of the worst case analysis in Appendix H is not clearly erroneous. The district court's reasoning amply supports its conclusion. See OEC III, 636 F.Supp. at 636-38. As one might expect, the material in Appendix H is less accessible than that in the main text, for the subject matter is more complex. As appellants argue, the materials might have been more accessible had it been presented in a single part of the EIS instead of in the main text and three appendices. But we are unpersuaded that the mode of presenting the worst case analysis rendered it unreadable in this case. 3