Water
and Environmental Programs
Welcome to the environmental compliance section of the Rural Utilities Service's (RUS) website. This website contains reference material that will assist Agency staff and applicants meet the Agency's environmental review and compliance responsibilities.
RUS financing of project proposals constitutes a “federal action,” which in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires RUS to consider the environmental effects of its action on the human environment prior to taking that action. In 1978, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) promulgated regulations to implement the procedural provisions of NEPA. In order to implement NEPA at the agency level, the CEQ directed agencies to adopt procedures to supplement their regulations. RUS's environmental policies and procedures are found at 7 CFR 1794. These regulations classify the Agency's actions into levels of environmental review (i.e., Categorical Exclusions, Environmental Assessments, or Environmental Impact Statements) and describe Agency-specific implementing procedures. To further the intent of NEPA, CEQ procedures, and the Agency's environmental policies and procedures, RUS integrates all of its environmental compliance, impact analyses, and review responsibilities, including the National Historic Preservation Act, in the environmental review documents prepared as part of its NEPA compliance.
CEQ has published a Citizen Guide describing how NEPA is implemented, and "how people outside the federal government — individual citizens, private sector applicants, members of organized groups, or representatives of Tribal, State, or local government agencies — can better participate in the assessment of environmental impacts conducted by federal agencies." If interested you may download that document here.
In addition, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, an agency that provides assistance to federal agencies in complying with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, has prepared a Citizen Guide to Section 106 review titled: Protecting Historic Properties: A Citizen's Guide to Section 106 Review. If interested you may download that document here.
RUS administers its Water and Environmental Program through USDA, Rural Development State Offices; the Electric and Telecommunication Programs are administered from Washington, DC. Each USDA Rural Development State Office has a State Environmental Coordinator (SEC) who provides oversight and direction in the implementation of RUS's environmental review responsibilities at the state level. For specific questions related to a Water and Environmental Program proposal in a particular state, we encourage you to contact that state's SEC; all of their contact information can be found at their respective State Office websites. Environmental contact information for the Electric and Telecommunication Programs can be found in the staff listings here (Engineering and Environmental Staff).
For all project proposals that require construction related activities, RUS normally requires its applicants to prepare environmental reports concurrently with early project planning and design activities. For Water and Environmental Program actions this is accomplished at the same time as preparing Preliminary Engineering Reports. This requirement meets the CEQ's intent whereby agencies "integrate the NEPA process with other planning at the earliest possible time to insure that planning and decisions reflect environmental values". To assist applicants in understanding the type of information needed in environmental reports, RUS has published a series of Bulletins.
Additional resources include an Environmental Library that contains text versions of pertinent environmental statutes, regulations, Executive Orders and other common guidance documents. In addition, this website contains an Environmental Compliance Course Catalog that lists the interactive, multimedia training efforts the Agency has developed. We encourage you to take advantage of all the resources on this website.
If you have any questions or for more information, please contact Mark S. Plank, Director, Engineering and Environmental Staff.