EPA has signed off on the environmental assessment of a desert tortoise conservation proposal intended to both protect the threatened species and streamline energy and other project permits throughout a large swath of Southern California.
In a brief but procedurally important letter filed Monday, the agency advised the Fish and Wildlife Service that it is satisfied with revisions made to the conservation plan’s environmental impact statement. The largely technical revisions were in response to an initial EPA review of the EIS while it was still in draft form.
“We did not identify significant environmental concerns to be addressed in the final EIS and supported the [plan],” Jean Prijatel. manager of EPA’s Policy and Operations Branch wrote Monday, adding that “we appreciate the Service’s detailed response to our comments and the changes made.”
The EPA official’s declaration that “we have no further comments” means FWS can progress to the next step with the 276-page general conservation plan unveiled in public last October.
