Errors Found in Reports by Familiar Firm

   Impact Sciences Inc., the consulting firm that has done environmental studies for the proposed Newhall Ranch and Riverpark developments, was chastised by Los Angeles County’s chief planner for errors in two recent reports, including one for a small project in Bouquet Canyon, officials said Thursday...

   The letter from James E. Hartl, the county’s planning director, focused on errors in a study prepared to divide one parcel into four lots in Bouquet Canyon near Vasquez Canyon Road, and in another study for a race track in the Antelope Valley, said Daryl Koutnik, supervising regional planner for the county.
    Koutnik said the problems related to biological studies, not to environmental impact reports.
    “The letter was basically to apprise the company that their biological services are not to the standards that we would normally accept for our list of biological consultants,” Koutnik said. “We had to notify them that the quality is not to the appropriate standards and they need to be cognizant of that.”
    The Agoura Hills firm could be taken off the county’s list of approved environmental consultants if the problems aren’t corrected, Koutnik said, adding that county planners received a prompt reply and assurances that problems would be fixed.
    In the case of the Bouquet Canyon subdivision, Impact Sciences correctly identified a species of native plant but mapped it in the wrong location, Koutnik said. Also, “they put in another species that is not likely to occur there,” and county biologists could turn up no evidence of it, he said.
    The study for the Antelope Valley property was “poorly prepared,” including “misspellings of scientific names and misinformation about the likelihood of species to occur” on the property, he said.
    Eric Sakowicz, principal and co-founder of Impact Sciences, said the firm is in the process of correcting such problems.

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