BILL REQ. #:  S-0877.1 

Read first time 02/10/09.   Referred to Committee on Environment, Water & Energy.

     AN ACT Relating to the state environmental policy act; and creating new sections.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that the state environmental policy act is an important mechanism to ensure that, in all state and local governmental actions or approvals, the responsible agency considers the potential environmental consequences of the proposed action. Where an agency determines that the proposal may have a significant adverse impact upon the quality of the human environment, the agency is required to conduct an analysis of the potential impacts and consider alternatives that may reduce or eliminate those impacts. The state environmental policy act procedures in preparing such an environmental impact statement require a draft and affording an opportunity to the public to review and comment upon the agency's analysis. These procedures promote openness and accountability in government and involve the public in important ways in making governmental decisions that will affect the state and their communities. But there have been instances in which agencies have avoided such analysis by improperly defining a series of related actions as separate proposals under the state environmental policy act. Such improper "segmenting" under the state environmental policy act is contrary to judicial decisions interpreting the state environmental policy act and undermines the objectives of thorough environmental analysis of the cumulative impacts from the overall project or proposal.
     For these reasons it is appropriate that the state agency charged by law with maintaining guidelines for state and local compliance with the state environmental policy act review this issue and make recommendations for administrative and legislative actions to prevent improper segment or piecemailing of proposals to avoid full environmental analysis under the state environmental policy act.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   (1) By December 31, 2009, the department of ecology shall provide a report to the environmental policy committees of the senate and house of representatives that examines the state environmental policy act procedures, case law, and recent governmental actions subject to the state environmental policy act in which there have been charges that the responsible agency improperly segmented the action with the result that the state environmental policy act compliance was avoided.
     (2) The report must address at least the following:
     (a) The "phased review" procedures under WAC 197-11-060;
     (b) Data on the number of projects completed through phased review;
     (c) Examination of phased review proposals and assessments to determine if a single comprehensive review should have been completed;
     (d) An examination of projects that were broken into a series of projects regardless of the cumulative effect;
     (e) An examination of the independence of each project and any subsequent related project;
     (f) The role of the lead agency;
     (g) The potential conflict of interest of the lead agency conducting the environmental review where the agency is a proponent or sponsor of the project subject to the review; and
     (h) Any recommendations regarding restructuring of the state environmental policy act phased review procedures or other recommendations to prevent inappropriate segment of the state environmental policy act actions to avoid required environmental analysis of the cumulative impacts of related actions.