Department of the
Interior
Departmental Manual
Effective Date: 5/27/04
Series: Environmental
Quality Programs
Part 516: National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
Chapter 11: Managing
the NEPA Process--Bureau of Land Management
Originating Office: Bureau
of Land Management
516 DM 11
11.1 Purpose.
This Chapter provides supplementary requirements for implementing
provisions of 516 DM 1 through 6 within the Department’s Bureau of Land
Management. This Chapter is referenced
in 516 DM 6.5.
11.2 NEPA Responsibility.
A. The
Director/Deputy Director are responsible for National
Environmental Policy Act compliance for Bureau of Land Management activities.
B. The
Assistant Director, Support Services, is responsible for policy interpretation,
program direction, leadership, and line management for Bureau environmental
policy, coordination and procedures. The
Division of Planning and Environmental Coordination (P&EC) which reports to
the Assistant Director, Support Services, has Bureauwide
environmental compliance responsibilities.
These responsibilities include program direction for environmental
compliance and ensuring the incorporation and integration of the NEPA
compliance process into Bureau environmental documents.
C. The
Assistant Directors, Renewable Resources, Energy and Minerals Resources, and
Management Services are responsible for cooperating with the Assistant
Director, Support Services, to ensure that the environmental compliance process
operates as prescribed within their areas of responsibility. This includes managing and ensuring the
quality of environmental analyses, assigned environmental documents and records
of decisions.
D. The
State Directors are responsible to the Director/Deputy Director for overall
direction and integration of the NEPA process into their activities and for
NEPA compliance in their States. The
P&EC unit provides major staff support and is the key focal point for NEPA
matters at the State level.
(1) The District Managers are responsible for implementing the NEPA
process at the District level. The
P&EC unit provides major support and is the key focal point for NEPA
matters at the District level.
(2) The Area Managers are responsible for implementing the NEPA
process at the resource area level.
11.3 Guidance to Applicants.
A. General.
(1) Applicants should make initial contact with the line manager
(Area Manager, District Manager or State Director) of the office where the
affected public lands are located.
(2) If the application will affect responsibilities of more then one
State Director, an applicant may contact any State Director whose jurisdiction
is involved. In such cases, the Director
may assign responsibility to the Headquarters Office or to one of the State
offices. From that point the applicant
will deal with the designated lead office.
(3) Potential applicants may secure from State Directors a list of
program regulations or other directives/guidance providing advice or
requirements for submission of environmental information. The purpose of making these regulations known
to potential applicants, in advance, is to assist them in presenting a
detailed, adequate and accurate description of the proposal and alternatives
when they file their application and to minimize the need to request additional
information. This is a minimum list and
additional requirements may be identified after detailed review of the formal
submission and during scoping.
(4) Since much of an applicant's planning may take place outside of BLM’s planning system, it is important for potential
applicants to advise BLM of their planning at the earliest possible stage. Early communication is necessary to properly
conduct our stewardship role on the public lands and to seek solutions to
situations where private development decisions may conflict with public land
use decisions. Early contact will also
allow the determination of basic data needs concerning environmental amenities
and values, potential data gaps that could be filled by the application, and a
modification of the list or requirements to fit local situations. Scheduling of the environmental analysis
process can also be discussed, as well as various ways of preparing any
environmental documents.
B. Regulations. The following partial list provides guidance
to applicants on program regulations which may apply to a particular
application. Many other regulations deal
with proposals affecting public lands, some of which are specific to BLM while
others are applicable across a broad range of Federal programs (e.g.,
Protection of Historic and Cultural Programs--36 CFR Part 800).
(1) Resource Management Planning--43 CFR 1610;
(2) Withdrawals--43 CFR 2300;
(3) Land Classification--43 CFR 2400;
(4) Disposition: Occupancy and Use--43 CFR 2500;
(5) Disposition: Grants--43 CFR 2600;
(6) Disposition: Sales--43 CFR 2700;
(7) Use: Rights-of-Way--43 CFR 2800;
(8) Use: Leases and Permits--43 CFR 2900;
(9) Oil and Gas Leasing--43 CFR 3100;
(10) Geothermal Resources Leasing--43 CFR 3200;
(11) Coal Management--43 CFR 3400;
(12) Leasing of Solid Minerals Other than Coal/Oil Shale--43 CFR 3500;
(13) Mineral Materials Disposal--43 CFR 3600;
(14) Mining Claims Under the General Mining
Laws--43 CFR 3800;
(15) Grazing Administration--43 CFR 4100;
(16) Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Management--43 CFR 4700;
(17) Forest Management--43 CFR 5000;
(18) Wildlife Management--43 CFR 6000; and
(19) Recreation Management--43 CFR 8300.
11.4 Major Actions Normally Requiring an EIS.
A. The
following types of bureau actions will normally require the preparation of an
EIS:
(1) Approval of Resource Management Plans.
(2) Proposals for Wilderness, Wild and Scenic Rivers, and National
Historic Scenic Trails.
(3) Approval of regional coal lease sales in a coal production
region.
(4) Decision to issue a coal preference right lease.
(5) Approval of applications to the BLM for major actions in the
following categories:
(a) Sites for steam-electric powerplants, petroleum refineries, synfuel
plants, and industrial facilities.
(b) Rights-of-way for major reservoirs, canals,
pipelines, transmission lines, highways and railroads.
(6) Approval of operations that would result in liberation of
radioactive tracer materials or nuclear stimulation.
(7) Approval of any mining operation where the area to be mined,
including any area of disturbance, over the life of the mining plan, is 640
acres or larger in size.
B. If,
for any of these actions it is anticipated that an EIS is not needed based on
potential impact significance, an environmental assessment will be prepared and
processed in accordance with 40 CFR 1501.4(e)(2).
11.5 Categorical Exclusions. The
Departmental Manual (516 DM 2.3A(3) & App. 2) requires that before any action
described in the following list of categorical exclusions is used, the
exceptions must be reviewed for applicability in each case. The proposed action cannot be categorically
excluded if one or more of the exceptions apply, thus requiring either an EA or
an EIS. When no exceptions apply, the
following types of bureau actions normally do not require the preparation of an
EA or EIS.
A. Fish
and Wildlife.
(1) Modification of existing fences to provide improved wildlife
ingress and egress.
(2) Minor modification of water developments to improve or
facilitate wildlife use (e.g., modify enclosure fence, install flood value, or
reduce ramp access angle).
(3) Construction of perches, nesting platforms, islands and similar
structures for wildlife use.
(4) Temporary emergency feeding of wildlife during periods of
extreme adverse weather conditions.
(5) Routine augmentations such as fish stocking, providing no new
species are introduced.
(6) Relocation of nuisance or depredating wildlife, providing the
relocation does not introduce new species into the ecosystem.
(7) Installation of devices on existing facilities to protect animal
life such as raptor electrocution prevention devices.
B. Fluid
Minerals.
(1) Issuance of future interest leases under the Mineral Leasing Act
of Acquired Lands where the subject lands are already in production.
(2) Approval of mineral lease adjustments and transfers, including
assignments and subleases.
(3) Approval of minor modifications or minor variances from
activities described in approved development/production plans (e.g., the
approved plan identifies no new surface disturbance outside the area already
identified to be disturbed).
(4) Approval of unitization agreements, communitization
agreements, drainage agreements, underground gas storage agreements,
compensatory royalty agreements, or development contracts.
(5) Approval of suspensions of operations, force majeure suspensions, and suspensions of operations and
production.
(6) Approval of royalty determinations such as royalty rate
reductions.
C.
Forestry.
(1) Land cultivation and silvicultural
activities (excluding herbicides) in forest tree nurseries, seed orchards, and
progeny test sites.
(2) Sale and removal of individual trees or small groups of trees
which are dead, diseased, injured, or which constitute a safety hazard, and
where access for the removal requires no more than maintenance to existing
roads.
(3) Seeding or reforestation of timber sales or burn areas where no
chaining is done, no pesticides are used, and there is no conversion of timber
type or conversion of nonforest to forest land. Specific reforestation activities covered
include: seeding and seedling plantings,
shading, tubing (browse protection), paper mulching, bud caps, ravel
protection, application of non-toxic big game repellant, spot scalping, rodent
trapping, fertilization of seed trees, fence construction around out-planting
sites, and collection of pollen, scions and cones.
(4) Precommercial thinning and brush
control using small mechanical devices.
(5) Disposal of small amounts of miscellaneous vegetation products
outside established harvest areas, such as Christmas trees, wildings, floral
products (ferns, boughs, etc.), cones, seeds, and personal use firewood.
D. Rangeland
Management.
(1) Approval of transfers of grazing preference.
(2) Placement and use of temporary (not to exceed one month)
portable corrals and water troughs, providing no new road construction is
needed.
(3) Temporary emergency feeding of livestock or wild horses and
burros during periods of extreme adverse weather conditions.
(4) Removal of wild horses or burros from private lands at the
request of the landowner.
(5) Processing (transporting, sorting, providing veterinary care to,
vaccinating, testing for communicable diseases, training, gelding, marketing,
maintaining, feeding, and trimming of hooves of) excess wild horses and burros.
(6) Approval of the adoption of healthy, excess wild horses and
burros.
(7) Actions required to ensure compliance
with the terms of Private Maintenance and Care Agreements.
(8) Issuance of title to adopted wild horses and burros.
(9) Destroying old, sick, and lame wild horses and burros as an act
of mercy.
E. Realty.
(1) Withdrawal extensions or modifications which only establish a
new time period and entail no changes in segregative
effect or use.
(2) Withdrawal revocations, terminations, extensions, or
modifications and classification terminations or modifications which do not
result in lands being opened or closed to the general land laws or to the
mining or mineral leasing laws.
(3) Withdrawal revocations, terminations, extensions, or
modifications; classification terminations or modifications; or opening actions
where the land would be opened only to discretionary land laws and where
subsequent discretionary actions (prior to implementation) are in conformance
with and are covered by a Resource Management Plan/EIS (or plan amendment and
EA or EIS).
(4) Administrative conveyances from the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) to the State of Alaska to accommodate airports on lands
appropriated by the FAA prior to the enactment of the Alaska Statehood Act.
(5) Actions taken in conveying mineral interest where there are no
known mineral values in the land, under Section 209(b) of the Federal Land
Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA).
(6) Resolution of class one color-of-title cases.
(7) Issuance of recordable disclaimers of interest under Section 315
of FLPMA.
(8) Corrections of patents and other conveyance documents under
section 316 of FLPMA and other applicable statutes.
(9) Renewals and assignments of leases, permits or rights-of-way
where no additional rights are conveyed beyond those granted by the original
authorizations.
(10) Transfer or conversion of leases, permits, or rights-of-way from
one agency to another (e.g., conversion of Forest Service permits to a BLM
Title V Right-of-way).
(11) Conversion of existing right-of-way grants to Title V grants or
existing leases to FLPMA section 302(b) leases where no new facilities or other
changes are needed.
(12) Grants of right-of-way wholly within the boundaries of other
compatibly developed rights-of-way.
(13) Amendments to existing rights-of-way such as the upgrading of
existing facilities which entail no additional disturbances outside the
rights-of-way boundary.
(14) Grants of rights-of-way for an overhead line (no pole or tower on
BLM land) crossing over a corner of public land.
(15) Transfer of land or interest in land to or from other bureaus or
Federal agencies where current management will continue and future changes in
management will be subject to the NEPA process.
(16) Acquisition of easements for an existing road or issuance of
leases, permits, or rights-of-way for the use of existing facilities,
improvements, or sites for the same or similar purposes.
(17) Grant of a short rights-of-way for utility service or terminal
access roads to an individual residence, outbuilding, or water well.
(18) Temporary placement of a pipeline above ground.
(19) Issuance of short-term (3 years or less) rights-of-way or land use
authorizations for such uses as storage sites, apiary sites, and construction
sites where the proposal includes rehabilitation to restore the land to its
natural or original condition.
(20) One-time issuance of short-term (3 years or less) rights-of-way or
land use authorizations which authorize trespass action where no new use or
construction is allowed, and where the proposal includes rehabilitation to
restore the land to its natural or original condition.
F. Solid
Minerals.
(1) Issuance of future interest leases under the Mineral Leasing Act
for Acquired Lands where the subject lands are already in production.
(2) Approval of mineral lease readjustments, renewals and transfers
including assignments and subleases.
(3) Approval of suspensions of operations, force majeure suspensions, and suspensions of operations and
production.
(4) Approval of royalty determinations such as royalty rate
reduction and operations reporting procedures.
(5) Determination and designation of logical mining units (LMUs).
(6) Findings of completeness furnished to the Office of Surface
Mining Reclamation and Enforcement for Resource Recovery and Protection Plans.
(7) Approval of minor modifications to or minor variances from
activities described in an approved exploration plan for leasable,
salable and locatable minerals. (e.g., the approved plan identifies no new
surface disturbance outside the areas already identified to be disturbed.)
(8) Approval of minor modifications to or minor variances from
activities described in an approved underground or surface mine plan for leasable minerals. (e.g., change in mining sequence or
timing.)
(9) Digging of exploratory trenches for mineral materials, except in
riparian areas.
(10) Disposal of mineral materials such as sand, stone, gravel, pumice,
pumicite, cinders, and clay, in amounts not exceeding
50,000 cubic yards or disturbing more than 5 acres, except in riparian areas.
G. Transportation
Signs.
(1) Placing existing roads in any transportation plan when no new
construction or upgrading is needed.
(2) Installation of routine signs, markers, culverts, ditches, waterbars, gates, or cattleguards
on/or adjacent to existing roads.
(3) Temporary closure of roads.
(4) Placement of recreational, special designation or information
signs, visitor registers, kiosks and portable sanitation devices.
H. Other.
(1) Maintaining plans in accordance with 43 CFR 1610.5-4.
(2) Acquisition of existing water developments (e.g., wells and
springs) on public land.
(3) Conducting preliminary hazardous materials assessments and site
investigations, site characterization studies and environmental monitoring. Included are siting,
construction, installation and/or operation of small monitoring devices such as
wells, particulate dust counters and automatic air or water samples.
(4) Use of small sites for temporary field work camps where the
sites will be restored to their natural or original condition within the same
work season.
(5) Issuance of special recreation permits to individuals or
organized groups for search and rescue training, orienteering or similar
activities and for dog trials, endurance horse races or similar minor events.
(6) A single trip in a one month period to data collection or
observation sites.
(7) Construction of snow fences for safety purposes or to accumulate
snow for small water facilities.
(8) Installation of minor devices to protect human life (e.g.,
grates across mines).
(9) Construction of small protective enclosures including those to
protect reservoirs and springs and those to protect small study areas.
(10) Removal of structures and materials of nonhistorical
value, such as abandoned automobiles, fences, and buildings, including those
built in trespass and reclamation of the site when little or no surface
disturbance is involved.
(11) Actions where BLM has concurrence or coapproval with another DOI
agency and the action is categorically excluded for that DOI agency.
(12) Rendering formal classification of lands as to their mineral
character and waterpower and water storage values.