CHAPTER 9 Preparation of Environmental Impact Statements Comments in Panel Discussion

• Jurisdiction: United States

Natural Resources Environmental Law
(Feb 1972)
CHAPTER 9
Preparation of Environmental Impact Statements Comments in Panel Discussion
J. Louis York
(Stearns-Roger Inc.)

The preparation of the basic report supporting an environmental impact statement is usually the responsibility of the applicant for a Federal action. Although the guidelines indicate a responsibility for the lead agency to prepare the statement, it is evident that the most knowledgable party should do so, and this usually is the applicant. The words of the guidelines have been rather unfortunate in this respect, and have been supported in the recent Greene County decision (U.S.C. App., 2nd C., Docket 71-1991), which implies that the applicant is biased and will present a statement which may sacrifice impartiality for promotion of a self-interest.

In our experience, the most workable system is one which begins with an extensive environmental report, prepared by the applicant or his consultants and submitted to the lead agency along with the formal documents requesting a Federal action. The lead agency personnel then must review the report, assure themselves that it does include all pertinent material in an equitable presentation, consult with other agencies having expertise and knowledge of the geographic area, and issue a draft impact statement which includes the applicant's report as a principal supporting document. If the agency finds that the report is inadequate, the applicant should be informed of the deficiency, advised of sources of additional information, and required to resubmit the report before a draft statement is issued. The time-consuming step is thus kept with the applicant, who has the most at stake and suffers the greatest impact from delays.

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In spite of the charge upon the lead agency, and their obvious responsibility for wise evaluation of all environmental factors, the staff is usually ill-equipped to ferret out and organize all the needed information into an adequate statement. There is little justification to alter radically the normal and traditional responsibility to require submission of relevant material, to weigh all factors, and then to decide. Most Federal agencies are predominantly administrative in nature, with supervisory responsibility over financial contracts; those with the necessary numbers of technically-oriented people have significant responsibilities in research and informational fields, which are suffering from neglect...