UNDER CEQA, signed into law on the heels of the first Earth Day in 1970, local governments faced with a proposed development are required to survey potential environmental impacts including noise, traffic and damage to wildlife. If the government finds that the impacts will be "significant," it can order the developer to conduct a detailed (and often expensive) environmental impact review and alleviate some of the harmful effects of the development.
In some circumstances local governments are required to order such a review, such as when a development threatens a species on the endangered or threatened list. But it must also occur when it threatens a species that "may become endangered if its environment worsens" or is "likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range."
The new, developer-friendly guidelines would strike out these last provisions and require review only for species already listed as threatened or endangered. "A lead agency could not determine that the project would have a significant impact on a species if that species was not listed under the State or Federal act," reads a "Statement of Reasons" that accompanies the proposed guidelines.
Enter the burrowing owl, the golden eagle, the coho salmon, the mountain beaver and hundreds of other species on the state's list of "Special Concern." These species are not listed as threatened or endangered, but the state Department of Fish and Game has evidence that these species are declining or losing habitat. They could be rare or even extinct in some regions of the state. There are many more Species of Special Concern than threatened or endangered species.
Environmentalists believe the new guidelines will leave it up to local government bodies whether or not to require an environmental impact report for sites containing these species. Worse, they fear local governments may let developers off the hook for any efforts to preserve them.
"Wilson's top priority is to get rid of CEQA, which is the number- one symbol of the ability to make a business or new development slow down and pay attention to things other than money," says Gary Patton, a lobbyist for the Planning and Conservation League. "It's the most powerful way an ordinary citizen can make the government pay attention to things they'd rather turn a blind eye to."
The state Resources Agency, charged with revising the CEQA guidelines every two years, claims the proposed guidelines came not from Gov. Wilson but from their own internal review. Andy McLeod, deputy secretary of the agency, says the agency doesn't intend to change the environmental coverage provided by CEQA and could be convinced to change the guidelines by the public comments from environmentalists and other concerned groups.
McLeod justifies the new guidelines by saying that "biological professionals should make the decisions" about whether a species is truly threatened. He adds that local agencies could still order full environmental reviews when no endangered species are on the site, but "to provide that there be mandatory CEQA compliance runs counter to the expertise brought to the process by Fish and Wildlife and Fish and Game."
But at least in the case of the state's endangered species act, biological professionals are not making the final decisions about whether species are threatened. Instead, the Fish and Game Commission is filled by five governor's appointees, most of whom have little experience in biology. The commission has come under attack for slowing the numbers of species they list to a trickle in recent years. Only two animals and two plants have been listed since January 1994. Currently the commission is fighting a suit demanding a place on the list for the Sacramento River spring run chinook salmon.
Ron Telzman, assistant executive director of the Fish and Game Commission, defends the board's record. He points out that in the commission's ten years in existence it has listed 55 of the 68 species for which petitions were filed. The conservation groups respond that, given the board's current makeup, it is no longer even worth their trouble to file petitions.
Robert Scheer
Seldom-Spotted Owl: Les Chibana and other environmentalists keep a close eye on the burrowing owl, listed as a species of special concern in California--a designation that indicates the bird's numbers may be declining.
IT'S TOO early to tell what effect these regulations will have if they pass. They are likely to face an immediate challenge in court from several environmental groups, which claim they go against the intention of CEQA. The Act requires agencies to consider a development's impact on all wildlife species, whether endangered or not.
In the meanwhile, conscientious city councils and environmental consultants may heed the thrust of CEQA and go about business as usual. "I'm not a lawyer, but as I look it, I don't think it's going to amount to any great changes," says Rick Hopkins, a San Jose wildlife biologist who evaluates proposed developments. "CEQA evolves with legal challenges and the judges' rulings that come from them. But as a biologist I'm supposed to look at all species on site whether they're common or not."
For city councils eager for the tax dollars that accompany new development, however, the new regulations could someday provide just the excuse they need to overlook a few pesky nests in the ground.
"CEQA provided one of the few tools that we have to protect a rare species not listed as endangered or threatened, to mitigate the impacts of development," says Lynne Trulio, the San Jose State biologist. "It hasn't worked incredibly well, and with these changes we won't even have that."
[ Metro | Metroactive Central | Archives ]
