ENVIRON IMPACT ASSESS REV 1992;13:311 318 3 11 AN EVALUATION OF WASHINGTON STATE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT IMPLEMENTATION (SEPA)

An evaluation of the Washington State Environmental Policy Act's (SEPA) use by King County shows that the substantive provisions of SEPA are seldom used. Because of this lack of use, the fundamental purposes of the act are being undermined and ecological damage continues without accountability. We propose a simple approach to increase the use of the substantive provision. The approach requires that administrators make precise interpretations of often vague environ-mental policies. This will result in increased use of applied science in the adaptive management paradigm and fulfilling the substantive intent of SEPA