S5E32: Hiding Big Projects in Small Pieces

How developers split projects to sidestep environmental review—and how communities fight back. Cadiz groundwater, Chevron and an Imperial County data center. Listen Now!

As promised a few episodes back, Chris explores a sneaky trick developers sometimes try to use to evade legally required environmental analysis of their projects. Segmentation, the term of art for dividing a large project into smaller pieces to obscure the environmental impacts of the whole project, is likely to become more frequent as the Trump administration keeps hacking away at environmental protection laws.

Chris provides a handful of illuminating examples:

• Cadiz gets the Interior Department to assess the company’s Northern Pipeline separately from the pumping it would enable, prompting new desert protection lawsuits.
• A non-desert example: 14 years ago, frontline community groups successfully challenged an upgrading of Chevron Oil’s refinery on Richmond, California. Though their allegations of segmentation (called “piecemealing” in California state law) didn’t sway a judge, the case illustrates how reasonable people can disagree on what constitutes segmentation.
• As the Federal approach to NEPA changes, Chris briefly examines what the erosion of CEQ regulations means for protecting the public and the environment from improperly segmented project proposals.
• An Imperial County victory: the court overturned a data center’s lot merger approval and required environmental review of the entire development.
• Fred Bell shares the dawn chorus from Sabino Canyon in Tucson.
• Apply for DAMN’s Fellowship for Desert Reporting, and support independent desert journalism through a donation to 90 Miles from Needles.

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