Water
and Environmental Programs
WELCOME
TO:
THE U S D A, RURAL DEVELOPMENT MISSION
AREA'S
ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE COURSE CATALOG
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Courses
Offered
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Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the USDA, Rural Development mission area agencies - the Utilities Programs, Housing Programs, and Business/Cooperative Programs - are required to consider the environmental effects of their actions on the human environment. In addition to NEPA, the agencies are subject to other applicable environmental statutes, regulations, and Executive Orders. To assist in training a widely dispersed staff as to the agencies' environmental compliance responsibilities and obligations, the Rural Development mission area has developed a series of interactive, multi-media training courses for delivery on Compact Disks (CD). Our computer-based-training effort is targeted to Rural Development staff -both National and Field Offices; Rural Development applicants including their engineering consulting firms; rural development professionals; lenders affiliated with Rural Development programs and anyone with an interest in NEPA and other environmental compliance issues.
As a supplement to our courses and to assist our staff/applicants in performing environmental reviews of agency actions, we have developed an Environmental Library, as well as a Glossary of all of the terms used in these courses. The Environmental Library will include all of the environmental statutes, Executive Orders, and other regulatory requirements included in our NEPA environmental review process. In addition, we have included a number of guidance or other technical documents that we feel will assist our staff in meeting our compliance obligations. All or parts of the environmental library and glossary can be downloaded to your computer for your future use or for use with your browser to research or print any of the selections offered. All selections are offered in a "portable document format" and can be read or printed using Adobe's Acrobat Reader. Acrobat Reader can be downloaded for free at http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.htm. Click here for link to our Environmental ForeHelp Handbook.
Whatever your needs, we hope our efforts here will provide you with enough information to assist in understanding the regulatory framework for promoting the wise use and management of our Nation's environmental resources.
Technical Requirements
Our C Ds are designed to run on multi-media computers with the following requirements:
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400 Mhz Pentium II P C with 64 MB RAM
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32X C D-ROM drive
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16 bit Sound Card w/Speakers
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5MB free disk space (for Adobe Acrobat Reader),
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Windows 95, 98 or N T operating system
The environmental training course catalog includes the following courses: Coastal Use Issues; Land Use Issues; Lender Liability; Historic Preservation Issues; National Environmental Policy Act; OSHA, First Responder; Transaction Screen Process; and Water Issues. Each course contains basic-level instruction on the environmental statutes or regulatory requirements pertinent to the course title. For information regarding course availability contact Mark S. Plank at (202) 720-1649 or e-mail: mark.plank@usda.gov. Limited number of C Ds are available upon request.