ELR Citation: ELR 20658
No(s). 82-504-RE (D. Or. May 6, 1986)

The court holds that an addendum to the Department of Agriculture's environmental impact statement (EIS) on the gypsy moth eradication program brought the EIS' worst-case analysis into compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act's (NEPA's) readability requirement. The court therefore lifts its injunction prohibiting the use of the four pesticides discussed in the worst-case analysis. The court holds that the addendum conveys the risks associated with the use of the four pesticides in an understandable and readable manner. Appendix H, a plain language rewrite of the worst-case analysis written at eighth- to eleventh-grade reading levels, adequately communicates these risks to the intended reader. The court holds that the government was not required to start fresh and issue a new EIS; the government's decision to prepare an addendum to the existing EIS does not render the EIS legally inadequate. The court next rejects various challenges raised by plaintiffs to the readability of the EIS and addendum on the grounds that they contain contradictory information. The EIS is not rendered unreadable because it uses complex words and phrases that could have been replaced by more easily understandable ones. The court holds that Appendix I, issued in the addendum as a verbal description of certain technical data in the EIS, is not subject to the readability requirement.

The court holds that the Department of Agriculture's use of no-observable-effect-levels and acceptable daily intake levels established by the Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization is not an abdication of its responsibility under NEPA. The court also rejects plaintiffs' contentions that the addendum relies on information not readily available to the public and that the government failed to respond fully to their public comments.

[Related cases are published at 12 ELR 20766, 20769; 13 ELR 20901; 14 ELR 20762; 15 ELR 20499, 20503.]

Counsel are listed at 16 ELR 20629.