Conducting the Environmental Impact Analysis and Assessment - Environmental Impact Analysis: Process and Methods - page 213

the record as to the basis for the Corps' employee's opinion on potential
mussel infestation or the qualifications of the employee who made the state-
ment. Without documentation for the opinion, lack of stated qualifications
of the employee, and the absence of pursuing opposing expert opinions
by Dr. Neves and others, the court found the decision was not supportable
under NEPA and section 404 regulations and case history. The Corps had
failed the “hard look” test mandated by practice and NEPA litigation.
The USCG DCR and the U.S. Army Corps/NRCS North Fork EISs' treatment
of invasive mussels illustrate two ends of the impact prediction spectrum.
The Corps' telephone conversation with an employee of unknown, or at least
undocumented, qualifications to address serious concerns raised by envi-
ronmental advocacy groups and two other federal agencies with expertise
in the field (and supported by outside experts) fell well short of the NEPA-
required “hard look” at impacts. In contrast, the USCG's approach included:

r A thorough literature review of the issues
r Proactive presentation to an independent board of expertise in the
field and their input
r Three phases of laboratory experiments to analyze the potential
impacts of the alternatives

The impact prediction should be more intense, proactive, complete, and
well documented than that used to address invasive mussels in the North
Fork EIS, but it does not always have to be as thorough as the approach used
in the DCR EIS. The level of investigation and the magnitude of the “hard
look” should be based on the intensity of the potential impacts, the prob-
ability the impact will occur, the importance and vulnerability of the envi-
ronmental resource, and implication if the impact does occur. The greater
the potential, probability, and implication of impact the greater should be the
level and intensity of investigation and accuracy of impact prediction.

5.3.5 Impact Prediction of Boston Harbor Cleanup Alternatives

The cleanup of Boston Harbor was a long running, controversial, politically,
charged, and heavily litigated endeavor (see Section 10.1 for a summary of
the background), and consequently both the draft and final EISs (U.S. EPA
1988a and 1988b) addressed a wide spectrum of impacts to a long list of envi-
ronmental resources. However in the final analysis of wastewater treatment
and disposal options there were two resources that proved to be:

r Extremely vulnerable
r Exhibited substantially different responses to different wastewater
treatment and disposal alternatives