Department of the Interior
Departmental Manual
Department of the Interior Departmental Manual
Effective Date: 6/30/03
Series: Environmental Quality Programs
Part 516: National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
Chapter 2: Initiating the NEPA Process
Originating Office: Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance
516 DM 2
2.1 Purpose. This Chapter provides supplementary instructions for implementing those portions of the CEQ regulations pertaining to initiating the NEPA process.
2.2 Apply NEPA Early (1501.2).
A. Bureaus will initiate early consultation and coordination with other bureaus and any Federal agency which has jurisdiction by law or special expertise with respect to any environmental impact involved, and with appropriate Federal, State, local and Indian tribal agencies authorized to develop and enforce environmental standards.
B. Bureaus will also consult early with interested private parties and organizations, including when the bureau=s own involvement is reasonably foreseeable in a private or non-Federal application.
C. Bureaus will revise or amend program regulations or directives to ensure that private or non-Federal applicants are informed of any environmental information required to be included in their applications and of any consultation with other Federal agencies, and State, local or Indian tribal governments required prior to making the application. A list of these regulations or directives will be included in each Bureau Appendix to Chapter 6.
2.3 Whether to Prepare an EIS (1501.4).
A. Categorical Exclusions (CX) (1508.4).
(1) The following criteria will be used to determine actions to be categorically excluded from the NEPA process: (a) The action or group of actions would have no significant effect on the quality of the human environment; and (b) The action or group of actions would not involve unresolved conflicts concerning alternative uses of available resources.
(2) Based on the above criteria, the classes of actions listed in Appendix 1 to this Chapter are categorically excluded, Department-wide, from the NEPA process. A list of CX specific to bureau programs will be included in each Bureau Appendix to Chapter 6.
(3) The exceptions listed in Appendix 2 to this Chapter apply to individual actions within CX. Environmental documents must be prepared for any actions involving these exceptions.
(4) Notwithstanding the criteria, exclusions and exceptions above, extraordinary circumstances may dictate or a responsible Departmental or Bureau official may decide to prepare an environmental document.
B. Environmental Assessment (EA) (1508.9). See 516 DM 3.
C. Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) (1508.13). A FONSI will be prepared as a separate covering document based upon a review of an EA. Accordingly, the words include(d) in Section 1508.13 should be interpreted as attach(ed).
D. Notice of Intent (NOI) (1508.22.). A NOI will be prepared as soon as practicable after a decision to prepare an environmental impact statement and shall be published in the Federal Register, with a copy to the Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance, and made available to the affected public in accordance with Section 1506.6. Publication of a NOI may be delayed if there is proposed to be more than three (3) months between the decision to prepare an environmental impact statement and the time preparation is actually initiated. The Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance will periodically publish a consolidated list of these notices in the Federal Register.
E. Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) (1508.11). See 516 DM 4. Decisions/actions which would normally require the preparation of an EIS will be identified in each Bureau Appendix to Chapter 6.
2.4 Lead Agencies (1501.5).
A. The Assistant Secretary - Policy, Management and Budget will designate lead bureaus within the Department when bureaus under more than one Assistant Secretary are involved and will represent the Department in consultations with CEQ or other Federal agencies in the resolution of lead agency determinations.
B. Bureaus will inform the Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance of any agreements to assume lead agency status.
C. A non-Federal agency will not be designated as a joint lead agency unless it has a duty to comply with a local or State EIS requirement that is comparable to a NEPA statement. Any non-Federal agency may be a cooperating agency by agreement. Bureaus will consult with the Solicitor's Office in cases where such non-Federal agencies are also applicants before the Department to determine relative lead/cooperating agency responsibilities.
2.5 Cooperating Agencies (1501.6).
A. The Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance will assist bureaus and coordinate requests from non-Interior agencies in determining cooperating agencies.
B. Bureaus will inform the Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance of any agreements to assume cooperating agency status or any declinations pursuant to Section 1501.6(c).
2.6 Scoping (1501.7).
A. The invitation requirement in Section 1501.7(a)(1) may be satisfied by including such an invitation in the NOI.
B. If a scoping meeting is held, consensus is desirable; however, the lead agency is ultimately responsible for the scope of an EIS.
2.7 Time Limits (1501.8). When time limits are established they should reflect the availability of personnel and funds.
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516 DM 2
Appendix 1
DEPARTMENTAL CATEGORICAL EXCLUSIONS
The following actions are categorical exclusions (CX) pursuant to 516 DM 2.3A(2). However, environmental documents will be prepared for individual actions within these CX if the exceptions listed in 516 DM 2, Appendix 2, apply.
1.1 Personnel actions and investigations and personnel services contracts.
1.2 Internal organizational changes and facility and office reductions and closings.
1.3 Routine financial transactions including such things as salaries and expenses, procurement contracts, guarantees, financial assistance, income transfers, audits, fees, bonds and royalties.
1.4 Law enforcement and legal transactions, including such things as arrests, investigations, patents, claims, legal opinions, and judicial activities including their initiation, processing, settlement, appeal, or compliance.
1.5 Regulatory and enforcement actions, including inspections, assessments, administrative hearings and decisions; when the regulations themselves or the instruments of regulations (leases, permits, licenses, etc.) have previously been covered by the NEPA process or are exempt from it.
1.6 Non-destructive data collection, inventory (including field, aerial and satellite surveying and mapping), study, research and monitoring activities.
1.7 Routine and continuing government business, including such things as supervision, administration, operations, maintenance and replacement activities having limited context and intensity; e.g. limited size and magnitude or short-term effects.
1.8 Management, formulation, allocation, transfer and reprogramming of the Department's budget at all levels. (This does not exclude the preparation of environmental documents for proposals included in the budget when otherwise required.)
l.9 Legislative proposals of an administrative or technical nature, including such things as changes in authorizations for appropriations, and minor boundary changes and land transactions; or having primarily economic, social, individual or institutional effects; and comments and reports on referrals of legislative proposals.
1.10 Policies, directives, regulations and guidelines of an administrative, financial, legal, technical or procedural nature; or the environmental effects of which are too broad, speculative or conjectural to lend themselves to meaningful analysis and will be subject later to the NEPA process, either collectively or case-by-case.
1.11 Activities which are educational, informational, advisory or consultative to other agencies, public and private entities, visitors, individuals or the general public.
1.12 Hazardous fuels reduction activities using prescribed fire not to exceed 4,500 acres, and mechanical methods for crushing, piling, thinning, pruning, cutting, chipping, mulching, and mowing, not to exceed 1,000 acres. Such activities: Shall be limited to areas (1) in wildland-urban interface and (2) Condition Classes 2 or 3 in Fire Regime Groups I, II, or III, outside the wildland-urban interface; Shall be identified through a collaborative framework as described in AA Collaborative Approach for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Communities and the Environment 10-Year Comprehensive Strategy Implementation Plan;@ Shall be conducted consistent with agency and Departmental procedures and applicable land and resource management plans; Shall not be conducted in wilderness areas or impair the suitability of wilderness study areas for preservation as wilderness; Shall not include the use of herbicides or pesticides or the construction of new permanent roads or other new permanent infrastructure; and may include the sale of vegetative material if the primary purpose of the activity is hazardous fuels reduction.
1.13 Post-fire rehabilitation activities not to exceed 4,200 acres (such as tree planting, fence replacement, habitat restoration, heritage site restoration, repair of roads and trails, and repair of damage to minor facilities such as campgrounds) to repair or improve lands unlikely to recover to a management approved condition from wildland fire damage, or to repair or replace minor facilities damaged by fire. Such activities: Shall be conducted consistent with agency and Departmental procedures and applicable land and resource management plans; Shall not include the use of herbicides or pesticides or the construction of new permanent roads or other new permanent infrastructure; and Shall be completed within three years following a wildland fire.
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516 DM 2
Appendix 2
EXCEPTIONS TO CATEGORICAL EXCLUSIONS
The following exceptions apply to individual actions within categorical exclusions (CX). Environmental documents must be prepared for actions which may:
2.1 Have significant adverse effects on public health or safety.
2.2 Have adverse effects on such unique geographic characteristics as historic or cultural resources, park, recreation or refuge lands, wilderness areas, wild or scenic rivers, sole or principal drinking water aquifers, prime farmlands, wetlands, floodplains or ecologically significant or critical areas, including those listed on the Department's National Register of Natural Landmarks.
2.3 Have highly controversial environmental effects.
2.4 Have highly uncertain and potentially significant environmental effects or involve unique or unknown environmental risks.
2.5 Establish a precedent for future action or represent a decision in principle about future actions with potentially significant environmental effects.
2.6 Be directly related to other actions with individually insignificant but cumulatively significant environmental effects.
2.7 Have adverse effects on properties listed or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
2.8 Have adverse effects on species listed or proposed to be listed on the List of Endangered or Threatened Species, or have adverse effects on designated Critical Habitat for these species.
2.9 Require compliance with Executive Order 11988 (Floodplain Management), Executive Order 11990 (Protection of Wetlands), or the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act.
2.10 Threaten to violate a Federal, State, local or tribal law or requirement imposed for the protection of the environment.
6/30/03 #3594
Replaces 9/26/84 #3507