Cal EnviroScreen Tool Workshop

The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) on behalf of the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) will convene a public meeting of the Cal/EPA Cumulative Impacts and Precautionary Approaches (CIPA) Work Group on January 11, 2013, from 10 am to 4 pm. This meeting will be held in the Coastal Hearing Room (2nd Floor) of the Cal/EPA Headquarters Building located at 1001 I Street, Sacramento, California. 

The purpose of this CIPA Work Group meeting is to provide advice on a second public review draft of CalEnviroScreen Tool.

The CalEnviroScreen Tool evaluates and assesses the cumulative impacts of multiple different pollution sources, including pesticide use, toxic pollutants from facilities, and traffic densities, to name a few, while taking into consideration a community’s unique vulnerabilities and characteristics such as environmental, health and socio-economic data (population age, cancer rates, educational attainment, income levels, etc.). 

According to the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), the draft screening tool is meant to present a broad picture of the burdens and vulnerabilities different areas face from environmental pollutants. According to the draft document, the potential uses of the tool include guidance for grant allocations and prioritizing cleanup and abatement projects to direct resources to the communities with the greatest need. It may also be utilized to prioritize enforcement of environmental laws and inform planning decisions about sustainable economic development investments in heavily impacted communities. CSAC has remaining concerns regarding the intended use for local governments and the intended use of the tool with respect to reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

CSAC is also working on setting up an additional local government specific meeting on the Cal EnvironScreen Tool in Sacramento in the end of January. More information and meeting specifics will be available soon. 

The agenda and meeting materials for the January 11th meeting will be available the week before the meeting here. 

Delta Plan Environmental Impact Report (EIR) Comment Period

The Recirculated Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Report (DPEIR-Volume 3) on the Delta Plan is available for a 45-day public comment period. As you may recall, the DPEIR reviewed the possible environmental consequences of the Fifth Staff Draft of the Delta Plan.
The Recirculated DPEIR (Volume 3), for sake of brevity, does not repeat certain basic information contained in Volumes 1 and 2 about environmental baseline (e.g. existing physical conditions), methodological information (e.g. analytical methods, thresholds of significance, etc.), and other information that applies to all of the Delta Plan alternatives analyzed in the EIR. 

The 45-day written comment period on the Recirculated DPEIR (Volume 3) commenced on Friday, November 30, 2012 and continues through (and including) Monday, January 14, 2013. For more information, visit the Delta Stewardship Council’s website.