NEPA Assignment
- State of the Practice
- National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
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NEPA Assignment is a process states can choose to undertake where they assume federal responsibility for transportation projects in exchange for a faster federal review process. The process eliminates the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) project-specific review and approval, allowing for increased efficiencies. Many AASHTO member states have found state assignment to be beneficial in generating cost and time savings on projects.
How the NEPA Assignment Process Works
- Draft applications can be reviewed and discussed among all parties before formal submission.
- Once the application is complete, the state must publish a statewide notice of its availability for review and comment, and then follow its own state procedures for public notification.
- Once approved/finalized, the state’s Department of Transportation becomes responsible and liable for compliance with all relevant federal environmental laws.
Benefits of NEPA Assignment
- The state’s Department of Transportation (DOT) can have complete control over and responsibility for environmental reviews and NEPA decisions on Federal-aid highway projects
- Allows for more direct engagement with stakeholders and public agencies
- Implements more ownership and flexibility of decision-making throughout the state
- Increases the speed of highway improvement projects while preserving environment quality
TRID the TRIS and ITRD database
NEPA Assignment Training Powerpoints and Quizzes
The objective of these training materials is to provide National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Assignment information to all professionals involved in the NEPA process. Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) staff helped identify six groups to receive the training: consultants, engineers, environmental specialists, local government staff, elected officials, and management. Six PowerPoints were developed specifically for these groups. The PowerPoints contain sections that outline an introductory review of NEPA and an explanation of how NEPA Assignment has changed the general responsibilities held by these six groups. An overview of what to expect and develop for different project classifications lays the foundation for project delivery of Categorical Exclusions (CEs), Environmental Assessments (EAs), and Environmental Impact Statement (EISs). Major aspects of implementing the NEPA process across all project classifications are outlined, such as project initiation and quality assurance and control. Finally, real-world examples are used to illustrate how important each person’s role is to the larger NEPA process under assignment, and to provide examples of where and how mistakes can take place. Also provided here are five quizzes (for all but the elected official group), which similarly use examples from practice to assess the user’s understanding of the material.
- https://library.ctr.utexas.edu/ctr-publications/0-6866-P1.pdf
- November 2015; Originally published June 2016. A revised version was made available at the URL above in October 2016.
University of Texas, Austin
Texas Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
- Loftus-Otway, Lisa
- Publication Date: 2016-10
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Photos; Tables;
- Pagination: 221p
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Environmental impact statements ; Implementation ; Project delivery ; Quality assurance ; Quality control ; Training
- Identifier Terms: National Environmental Policy Act
- Geographic Terms: Texas
- Subject Areas: Education and Training; Environment; Transportation (General);
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01603678
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: 0-6866-P1
- Contract Numbers: 0-6866
- Files: TRIS, ATRI, USDOT, STATEDOT
- Created Date: Jun 28 2016 4:41PM
IMAGES
COMMENTS
This program is called NEPA assignment. NEPA assignment streamlines the federal environmental review process by eliminating Federal Highway Administration project-specific review and approval, and provides a participating state specific review and approval authority.
In fact, there are eight states that have participated in the NEPA Assignment: Alaska. Arizona. California. Florida. Nebraska. Ohio. Texas. Utah. Learn more about how Nebraska recently embarked on its NEPA Assignment: Additional information about state assignment can be found on the FHWA’s website.
NEPA Assignment. Consultants. Training. Purpose: The purpose of this training is to provide an overview of recent changes to TxDOT’s responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA).
environmental laws applicable to FHWA projects in Texas, including NEPA, Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act of 1966, Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, and many other
I. INTRODUCTION. This report presents the results of TxDOT’s self-monitoring of its QA/QC process under NEPA assignment, as required by Section 8.2.7 of the December 9, 2019 NEPA assignment MOU between TxDOT and FHWA.
TxDOT works with the Federal Highway Administration and other federal agencies to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and uses the TxDOT environmental compliance process for state and local projects, where TxDOT is the state approval authority.
These training materials provide assignment information on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to all professionals involved in the NEPA process, such as elected officials, engineers, management, local government staff, engineers, consultants, and environmental specialists.
Use this outline to prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA) for projects for which an EA is prepared for Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) approval under TxDOT’s rules or under the NEPA Assignment Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Federal Highway Administration. Cover Sheet. Table of Contents. List of Acronyms.
FHWA Texas Division office and make the report available for public inspection. Section 8.2.8 of the NEPA assignment MOU requires the following to be included in an annual self-monitoring report: • Scope of monitoring review • Compliance areas reviewed • Description of the monitoring process
The objective of these training materials is to provide National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Assignment information to all professionals involved in the NEPA process. Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) staff helped identify six groups to receive the training: consultants, engineers, environmental specialists, local government staff ...