California Changes Its Environmental Quality Act

Studies showed that California EIR's had become too large and costly. The documents did not help part time city councilmen respond to problems. In some cases the documents were prepared and then ignored. Despite these problems, the studies found that review of environmental impacts was valuable and should be improved. Following these studies, the California Legislature amended the law in 1976 to shorten EIR's, to focus the reports on environmental problems, and to require agencies to respond to those problems. A summary, list of references, and a table of contents or index were required to help readers find critical information. Through a requirement for findings, public agencies are now required to solve environmental problems or to explain why the problems could not be solved. These changes provide more integration of environmental, economic and social concerns in the environmental analysis process.