Environmental Effects and Mitigation
Chapter 5 of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) discusses the effects of each alternative, with the environmental topics corresponding to State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) requirements. Each sub-chapter reviews the affected environment, analyzes the impacts of the alternatives, describes cumulative effects, and discusses potential mitigation measures and significant unavoidable impacts.
Analysis of a non-project action such as the VISION
The analysis of alternatives considers the likely environmental consequences that may occur directly, indirectly, or cumulatively following the adoption of an updated VISION. As a plan-level or non-project action, the adoption of an updated VISION would have relatively few direct impacts, and none of these would occur automatically through the adoption of the updated VISION alone. An updated VISION document itself would not directly lead to physical changes in the environment such as could occur through a project-level action such as a major redevelopment. However, the future demands posed by increased population and employment in the region are considered as direct impacts in this DEIS under all alternatives. These include the environmental results from more people traveling throughout the region; more people requiring public services, including water, sewer, emergency services, and schools; more people requiring housing, places to work, and recreational resources; and more people potentially generating air pollution and waste.
Indirect effects include the actions that others may take as a likely consequence of an updated VISION. These actions would require their own environmental reviews and include the actions of the region’s counties, cities and governmental agencies to update their plans and infrastructure to accommodate future growth. They include the actions of local governments and state and regional transportation agencies that will likely develop plans and projects to meet future transportation needs. For instance, following the adoption of an updated VISION, the region’s metropolitan transportation plan, Destination 2030, will be extended to 2040 and amended to address the VISION's preferred growth alternative in 2008. Finally, the analysis of indirect effects considers the wider range of consequences that would be expected with increased development and economic activities in the region, including actions that may be taken by both public and private parties, including developers, public and private utilities, businesses and others.
Cumulative effects analysis is a required topic under SEPA, however, the analysis also considers the more specific guidance provided under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which are required for federal actions. Under NEPA, cumulative effects are defined as “the impact on the environment which results from the incremental impact of the action when added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions regardless of what agency or person undertakes such other actions” (Code of Federal Regulations, 40 CFR S1508.7).
In many ways, the regional focus of this EIS allows for analysis that is inherently cumulative. The individual environmental topic descriptions of their affected environment reflects both past and present actions and includes the effects of historical actions (such as major changes in watersheds, land use patterns, and travel patterns), as well as more recent actions including the adoption of the original VISION 2020 for the region and related Growth Management Act actions by others.
Where appropriate, discussions of cumulative effects also try to consider the likely increases in growth and activity outside of the scope of the VISION, including activities beyond the region. These include actions by other parties including military bases, tribal governments, and in adjacent communities such as could occur in Island, Skagit and Thurston counties. It could include trends within actions or Washington State, or at a broader national or international scale, such as changes in the economy, or in state or federal programs. In some topic areas, other cumulative environmental effects, including statewide, ecoregional, or even national and global conditions and trends are generally discussed.
