Reform of California environmental legislation faces uncertainty

California's environmental legislation is facing reform after lobbying from industry in the state.

Mercury News reported that the law, which is 43-years-old, is often considered to "protect everything but the environment".

Silicon Valley Leadership Group chief executive officer and president Carl Guardino told the newspaper that the environmental legislation has been "greatly abused".

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has been the focus of work by Governor Jerry Brown, who promised to restructure the law as part of his election as mayor of Oakland.

Critics have claimed the legislation has been used maliciously by businesses to stop competitors' projects, that homeowners have used it inappropriately to stop aesthetic changes to neighbourhoods and labour unions as leverage for employee deals.

CEQA requires environmental studies to be conducted if a project is deemed to affect land, air, water and other elements. Public consultation must also be carried out and developers must "mitigate" potential damage.

However, as a result, businesses can often face unmanageable costs in order to make changes and improvements to their properties. Some have also faced legal action.

Questions have been raised about whether reforms will go ahead, as the person driving the changes, Senator Michael Rubio, has resigned the legislature.

His successor Senator Jerry Hill has said he is open to improving the law but "has no desire to change" the "fundamental" principles behind it.

Recently, is was revealed that US firm Woodard & Curran has been awarded a contract to deal with wastewater from specialist dairy producer Milk Speciality Global.

Woodard & Curran will be responsible for operations and staffing at two treatment plants in the US cities of Boscobel and Adell in Wisconsin.