1972 California 318 EGR

If your intake has NO place to mount the EGR, but Does have working floor jets, that would be a continuous EGR set-up.
If your intake has a place to mount an EGR, then the valve is used to proportionally regulate the amount of EGR.
Properly working, in stock configuration, EGR is never a problem. Well except on PT fuel-economy.
If your intake has the floor jets, they should be visible right under the carb, at WOT. If they are threaded they are NOT Pipe-thread, as already stated.

If you have the continuous-feed jets, and headers, and a non-stock cam with significant overlap; then the jets need to be plugged, or better yet, defeated at the intake to head interface. If you have the EGR-pad, simply bolting on a plate, or disconnecting the plumbing to the valve, defeats it. However, the valve can leak, whereas the plate cannot.. If you block the ports at the heads, then the open jets do nothing, except perhaps cause turbulence; but on a 2bbl street-engine, I sure wouldn't worry about it. I have seen them brazed shut, and the standpipes removed.
If you do NOT have headers, and do NOT have idle-issues, I would just leave it be; in all likelyhood, the passages have been carboned up for decades.