Contacts
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NEPA Overview
About NEPA
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 established a requirement that federal agencies incorporate environmental considerations, as well as feasibility, cost, technical aspects, and mission importance, in the process of deciding to implement proposed projects. NEPA applies to proposed projects that are federally funded or permitted or that occur on federal land.
Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations (40 CFR 1500-1508) and DOE implementing regulations (10 CFR 1022) provide the criteria for determining the appropriate level of documentation of environmental impacts. There are three principal kinds of NEPA documents and various kinds of supplemental documents and decision documents. The three main kinds of NEPA documents are listed below:
- Environmental Impact Statements (EIS)
- EISs are detailed documents, frequently multiple volumes, that analyze in detail potentially significant environmental impacts of a major federal action and its reasonable alternatives. An EIS may be programmatic (PEIS) or sitewide (SWEIS) in scope. An EIS may be supplemented as new information becomes available or as a project develops. The supplement process may produce a Supplemental EIS (SEIS), a Supplemental SWEIS (S-SWEIS), or a Supplemental PEIS (SPEIS). DOE may also prepare a Supplemental Analysis (SA) to evaluate if an EIS still bounds an action whose scope has changed.
- When a federal agency issues an EIS, it typically also issues a Record of Decision (ROD) that describes the action that the agency will take and its reason for taking that action rather than one of the alternatives.
- Environmental Assessments (EA)
- EAs are intended to be concise documents that analyze the environmental consequences of a proposed action and its reasonable alternatives. If the environmental impacts are minimal, the agency issues a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) outlining its reasons for deciding on a specific alternative. If the proposed action could result in significant environmental impacts, the agency may decide to cancel or significantly modify the proposed action, or it may decide to prepare an EIS.
- If the scope of an approved project changes, or the likely impacts could exceed those in the EA, DOE may prepare supplemental analyses to determine if the new scope is within the bounds of the original EA analysis.
- Categorical Exclusion (CX or Cat-X)
- Each federal agency, following CEQ regulations, publishes a list of categories of actions that typically do not have significant environmental impacts and are categorically excluded from the requirement to prepare an EA or EIS. These categorical exclusions must meet criteria for minimal environmental impact.
Mitigation Action Plans
Mitigation Action Plans (MAPs)
When an EIS or EA identifies negative environmental impacts from the proposed action, it may choose to prepare a Mitigation Action Plan to lessen those impacts. Implementation of a Mitigation Action Plan is a necessary condition for proceeding with a particular course of action.
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