(4) The EIR Properly Disclosed Impacts to the Desert Tortoise, Including Respiratory Disease

WWP's rehearing application claims that the EIR did not adequately discuss problems caused by a respiratory disease affecting the desert tortoise. According to WWP, this illness could be affected by changes in air quality or construction dust. (WWP Rehrg. App., p. 5.) In fact, respiratory illness in the desert tortoise is caused by an infections disease that is transmitted from tortoise to tortoise. The EIR address the increased chances of the transmission of this respiratory disease as a result of the EITP at page 3.4-85. The EIR takes the position that the infection itself is the main danger to tortoises, stating "[t]his condition often leads to death...." (EIR at p. 3.4-85.)

In its Comment Letter WWP gave a reference to a paper, claiming this paper showed that respiratory disease in the desert tortoise is also affected by "environmental factors[.]" (EIR, Appendix G, Comment Letter No. 21 (Sept. 7, 2009) at p. 2, fn. 1.) This paper explicitly acknowledges that its theory of environmental factors does not represent the scientific consensus. According to WWP's paper, the view held by the EIR is held as true "in most of the literature on desert tortoise." (Sandmeier, et al., URTD As a Threat to Desert Tortoise Populations: A Reevaluation (2009) 142 Biological Conservation 1255, 1260.) The paper also does not discuss construction dust. The environmental factors it describes are drought and chronic stress. (Id. at p. 1260.) The EIR was not required, by law, to discuss a paper seeking to spark a debate among scientists by challenging the consensus view, and WWP's claim of error has no merit.