NEPA Basics

You finished a NEPA document, got your approval, and moved on. Then the project stalls. Two years pass. The design changes. New information comes in. Now you need to move forward but is your original NEPA document still good? That is exactly what a NEPA re-evaluation answers. It is a formal review that determines whether […]

If you work on projects in California, you’ve probably dealt with both NEPA and CEQA. They cover a lot of the same ground: environmental review, impact analysis, public disclosure. But they are separate laws with different triggers, different processes, and different requirements. Understanding how they relate to each other and where they diverge is essential

An Environmental Impact Statement is the most rigorous level of NEPA review. It is required when a project is expected to have significant effects on the human environment, or when an Environmental Assessment concludes that impacts are significant enough to warrant one. EIS projects are serious undertakings. They are relatively rare in day-to-day local agency

An Environmental Assessment is the middle tier of NEPA review. It sits between a Categorical Exclusion, the streamlined review used for routine projects, and an Environmental Impact Statement, which is required for major projects with significant impacts. An EA is what happens when the level of environmental impact is uncertain. The purpose of an EA

If a project goes through an Environmental Assessment, it ends one of two ways. Either the agency determines the project will cause significant environmental impacts and moves to a full Environmental Impact Statement, or it issues a Finding of No Significant Impact. Most EAs end this way. What a FONSI Actually Is A Finding of

The NEPA process has eight key steps from determining federal involvement to getting project approval. Here’s how it works in plain language. What Is the NEPA Process? NEPA — the National Environmental Policy Act — requires federal agencies to evaluate environmental impacts before approving projects that involve federal funding, federal permits, or federal land. The

Meta description: NEPA timelines range from one month to five years depending on the type of review required. Here’s what drives the timeline and what you can do to keep your project on track. The Honest Answer One month. Or five years. Depending on the project, both are possible under NEPA. That’s not a dodge.

Once you’ve determined that a project needs NEPA, the next question is: what kind of environmental review does it need? There are three levels: a Categorical Exclusion (CE), an Environmental Assessment (EA), and an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The level required depends on how much impact the project is expected to have on the environment.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your project needs to go through NEPA, the first question to answer is simple: is the federal government involved? That involvement is called a federal nexus. No federal nexus, no NEPA. Here’s what that means in practice. What Is a Federal Nexus? NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act) applies to

What Is NEPA? A Plain-Language Guide If you’ve worked on a federally funded project, you’ve probably heard the term NEPA. But what is NEPA exactly, and why does it matter for your project?? NEPA stands for the National Environmental Policy Act. Signed into law by President Nixon on January 1, 1970, it was one of