Mothers Against Toxic Housing v. California Department of Toxic Substances Control

The California Court of Appeal affirmed the rejection of a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) challenge to the California Department of Toxic Substances Control’s (DTSC’s) approval of a Prospective Purchaser Agreement (PPA) for an 86-acre site in the City of Richmond. DTSC previously adopted a negative declaration for a Feasibility Study & Remedial Action Plan (FS/RAP) covering a portion of the site. The petitioners challenging the PPA approval alleged, among other things, that 2020 guidelines released by the State of California significantly increased the amount of expected sea level rise and that the increased rate of sea level rise would result in new or increased impacts from implementation of the selected remediation option. The appellate court agreed with the court below that the 2020 guidelines did not constitute new information that was not considered when the FS/RAP was approved, or that the information would require major revisions to the negative declaration. The court also noted that the plaintiffs had not addressed previous decisions holding that sea level rise is not an impact on the environment caused by the project.