What is an EIS?
An EIS (Environmental Impact Statement)
is a detailed report describing the potential effects of a
project on the environment, as described in the regulations
of the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality (40 CFR Parts
1500-1508). The Circ-Williston EIS covers transportation improvements
in the specific project area between I-89 and Williston, Essex,
and Essex Junction. The Draft EIS document can be found on the DRAFT EIS Web page.
Why is an EIS needed?
The ultimate purpose of the EIS is to assist
in decision making – “to help public officials
make decisions that are based on understanding of environmental
consequences, and take actions that protect, restore, and
enhance the environment “ (43 CFR 55990 Section 1500.1,
CEQ Regulations.)
When is an EIS done?
An EIS is carried out for certain types
of projects in response to the National Environmental Policy
Act of 1969 (NEPA). NEPA applies to “proposed actions”
-- development projects, legislation, and even policy decisions
-- that are federally funded (or partially federally funded),
licensed, or permitted. An EIS is the most thorough and comprehensive
level of NEPA documentation.
What’s included in an EIS?
An EIS report includes physical, biological,
and social elements in the project’s environment.
Who is responsible for the EIS on
the Circ-Williston project?
VTrans (Vermont Agency of Transportation),
and the Federal Highway Administration, are the lead agencies
responsible for developing the EIS document. The Louis Berger
Group has been hired as consultants to conduct the study.
The Berger Group is nationally recognized as having expertise
in the types of issues likely to be involved in the Circ-Williston
EIS.
(back to top)
How is an EIS done?
An EIS report is conducted through a study
process that includes extensive coordination and information-sharing
among public officials and citizens about possible environmental
consequences, as well as scientific investigations into key
pertinent issues.
The study is conducted in five steps. Follow
this link to learn more about the "Five Step Process".
Are there regulations for how an EIS
shall be done?
Yes. The federal Council on Environmental
Quality (CEQ) and FHWA have regulations that describe when
and how the NEPA process which guides the development of an
EIS should be carried out. Follow the links for regulations:
FHWA-DOT
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT AND RELATED PROCEDURES and CEQ
- Regulations for Implementing NEPA
How are the study objectives achieved?
EIS study objectives are achieved through
interagency coordination and public participation in planning
and project development, in addition to scientific study and
analysis.
(back to top)
What agencies besides VTrans have
a role in seeing that objectives are met?
The Circ-Williston EIS is being conducted
by VTrans as the sponsoring agency and FHWA as the lead federal
agency, with input and assistance from regional, state, and
federal cooperating agencies: Chittenden County Metropolitan
Planning Organization and Chittenden County Regional Planning
Commission; Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Agency of
Commerce and Community Development, and Department of Agriculture;
U.S. EPA, Corps of Engineers, Federal Transit Administration,
Fish and Wildlife Service, and Natural Resources Conservation
Service. The study is actively seeking input from the communities
in and around Chittenden County and from environmental, business,
transportation, and other stakeholder organizations.
What is the Five-Step Process for
the Circ-Williston EIS?
- Scoping (identification of issues to
be studied)
- Screening a long list of potential alternatives
- Analyzing and evaluating a short list
of alternatives in detail
- Comparing alternatives and preparing
the Draft EIS (DEIS)
- Responding to comments, revising, and
preparing the Final EIS (FEIS) Identifying the Preferred
Alternative
Through every step of developing the EIS,
the study team will be gathering information/input from agencies,
communities, organizations, and citizens and looking squarely
at the environmental consequences of the various alternatives.
Follow this link to learn more about
the five step EIS process.
(back to top)
What phase of the EIS are we currently
in?
Scoping was completed in May 2005 and we
are now in the screening phase. This phase will last until
approximately September 2005.
How long will it take to complete
the EIS?
About 18 months. The final document is expected
to be completed in late spring of 2006.
Click
here for a project schedule.
When and how can the public have a
voice in developing the EIS?
The development of the EIS will be an open
process, and the public will be encouraged to participate
throughout the study. Documents will be accessible on this
website, at the VTrans Project Office (20 Kimball Avenue,
South Burlington) and at public libraries in Burlington, Colchester,
Essex, Essex Junction, and Williston. Public forums will be
held during each phase in communities within the study area,
beginning with three scoping meetings in Open House format
in March 2005 and public forums on Screening in June 2005.
(Please follow this link
to the Meetings Page for more information). Public meetings
on the results of screening will be held in September 2005.
Formal comments on Scoping were accepted
through April 7, 2005. Comments received during this period
were included in the Scoping Memorandum that will guide the
EIS. A second formal comment period will occur following the
publication of the Draft EIS in winter 2006. All input received
at public meetings throughout the EIS process will be carefully
considered.
(back to top)
What is Environmental Streamlining
and How Does It Affect the Circ-Williston EIS?
Environmental streamlining is a process
that requires transportation and natural, cultural, and historic
resource agencies to establish realistic timeframes for developing
and reviewing projects, and then to work cooperatively to
adhere to those timeframes. One federal agency, in this case
FHWA, takes the lead role working cooperatively with other
federal and state agencies during the entire transportation
development process. This coordinated review process includes
input from the public, as well as from other agencies, to
guarantee that all environmental protections, as well as other
issues, are addressed. A key element of Environmental Streamlining
is communication with and the gathering of input from the
public and stakeholders.
Follow
this link to learn more about environmental streamlining.
What is the Five Step Process for
the Circ-Williston EIS?
1. Scoping
Scoping is the first step in the EIS
process.
Scoping is an open process involving the public, communities,
concerned organizations, and state and federal agencies. Its
purpose is to identify the major and important issues that
should be considered in the EIS, including current and future
transportation problems. Scoping also identifies possible
options for addressing transportation problems, which should
be studied in the EIS. The result of this phase is a Scoping
Memorandum that records and responds to all comments and serves
as the work plan for the EIS. Public and agency involvement
will continue throughout the EIS process.
The process for the Circ-Williston EIS went well beyond the
single scoping meeting required by federal regulations. Three
public scoping open houses were held to provide an opportunity
for the public to learn about the EIS study and share their
views on the study and the issues and transportation alternatives
it should consider. VTrans and FHWA are also meeting with
a state and federal inter-agency group and developed a cooperating
agency agreement to provide input during scoping and subsequent
phases of the study. Major goals of scoping included the following:
- Determine the scope of work necessary
to examine and evaluate significant issues in the EIS;
- Define the Purpose and Need of the project
in detail;
- Establish a long list of transportation
improvement alternatives to be considered in the study;
- Identify issues that must be studied;
- Define the responsibilities of the lead
and cooperating agencies in carrying out the NEPA process;
- Identify other pertinent environmental
review and consultation requirements so that they may be
undertaken at the same time as, or integrated with, the
EIS
- Outline a schedule for preparation of
the EIS in relationship to the VTrans/FHWA decision-making
schedule.
(back to top)
2. Screening a Long List of Potential
Project Alternatives
The consideration of all reasonable
project alternatives is required by National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA) and provides opportunities to avoid environmental
impacts. At the same time, all of the alternatives must meet
the Purpose and Need of the project.
The purpose and need statement describes the basis for undertaking
a project with taxpayers' money. The purpose describes the
objectives of the project: what problem or problems will the
project solve? The need explains the current issues driving
the project: what are the safety, economic, and/or operational
issues in the current situation? A clear purpose and need
statement explains why the expenditure of funds is necessary
and worthwhile.
After the purpose and need statement has been defined, project
alternatives can be developed to address the project objectives.
If an alternative does not meet the project purpose and need,
or if it is clearly not feasible or has clearly unacceptable
impacts, it is dropped from further consideration. If an alternative
contributes to the project’s purpose and need but is
not in itself sufficient to meet these objectives, it may
be retained and combined with other potential alternatives;
an example might be pedestrian and bicycle improvements.
For the Circ-Williston EIS a long list of transportation concepts
received initial (qualitative) transportation screening to
eliminate concepts that clearly do not meet purpose and need.
Some concepts which have merit but which do not in themselves
meet purpose and need were reserved for later consideration.
The remaining concepts were organized into preliminary transportation
alternatives and assessed in greater detail using quantitative
methods. This assessment considered both transportation performance
measures (how well the preliminary alternatives meet transportation
needs) and environmental performance measures (how they affect
communities, cultural resources, and the natural environment).
The result of screening is a short list of alternatives for
detailed analysis in Step 3.
The project purpose and need drives the alternatives analysis,
impact analysis, and ultimate selection of a transportation
alternative. Council of Environmental Quality regulations
require that an EIS consider the "no-action" (also
called “no-build”)alternative as well as “action”
or “build” alternatives, and requires evaluation
of “all reasonable alternatives." The Circ Williston
EIS will therefore consider a broad range of alternatives
identified during scoping as the first step in project planning.
(back to top)
3. Analyzing Environmental Impacts
of a Short List of Potential Project Alternatives
The short list of project alternatives
identified through the screening process will be studied in
detail in the Draft EIS (DEIS). These alternatives will be
subject to the intensive studies defined by project scoping
and carried out within the framework of NEPA and Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA) guidelines for an EIS. The impact analysis
will cover direct impacts, indirect impacts, construction-period
impacts, and cumulative impacts of the project on the environment.
Cumulative impact analysis considers the project in combination
with all other planned or foreseeable projects; in the case
of Circ-Williston, improvements outside the project area such
as Circ-Colchester would be part of the cumulative analysis.
Specific methodologies, as approved by FHWA after input from
cooperating agencies and the public, will be used to analyze
impacts relative to particular resources. In the event that
unavoidable significant adverse effects on any environmental
resources are identified, analyses must include proposals
to minimize or compensate for those impacts; such proposals
are known as “impact mitigation”. NEPA also requires
analysis of the relationship between local short-term uses
of man's environment and the maintenance and enhancement of
long-term productivity, as well as evaluation of any irreversible
and irretrievable commitments of resources associated with
the proposed action.
Two public technical workshops on the methodology for analyzing
indirect and cumulative impacts were held in May and June
2005 to explain the process and collect specific input from
citizens, agencies, concerned groups, and local officials.
Additional workshops will be held on the preliminary results
of the analysis.
(back to top)
4. Preparation of the Draft EIS
The FHWA has well-established guidelines
for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act in
terms of both process and content of the EIS document. These
guidelines include a detailed outline of topics that form
the sections of the EIS. As noted under Scoping, the intent
of NEPA is to focus on significant issues and avoid detailed
study of topics having no issues or impacts. Therefore, the
actual contents of the DEIS and amount of detail provided
under each topic will vary greatly with each project. The
content of a “typical” EIS, however, is presented
below, as outlined in the FHWA Technical Advisory T 6640.8A
(October 30, 1987), Guidance for Preparing and Processing
Environmental and Section 4(f) Documents.
These contents show the large span of resource topics and
considerations normally evaluated in an EIS associated with
FHWA-funded transportation projects. The contents also reflect
the numerous mandates of NEPA – to identify the project
purpose and need, to consider alternatives, to evaluate a
range of impacts, to integrate regulatory coordination within
the document, to include comments identified by stakeholders,
and to inform officials and citizens of the project.
Typical Contents of EIS Documents
under FHWA Regulations
A. Cover Sheet
B. Summary
C. Table of Contents
D. Purpose of and Need for Action
E. Alternatives
F. Affected Environment
G. Environmental Consequences
1.
Land Use Impacts
2. Farmland Impacts
3. Social Impacts
4. Relocation Impacts
5. Economic Impacts
6. Considerations Relating to Pedestrians and Bicyclists
7. Air Quality Impacts
8. Noise Impacts
9. Water Quality Impacts
10. Permits
11. Wetland Impacts
12. Water Body Modification and Wildlife Impacts
13. Floodplain Impacts
14. Wild and Scenic Rivers
15. Coastal Barriers
16. Coastal Zone Impacts
17. Threatened or Endangered Species
18. Historic and Archeological Preservation
19. Hazardous Waste Sites
20. Visual Impacts
21. Energy
22. Construction Impacts
23. Relationship of Local Short-term Uses vs. Long-term
Productivity
24. Irreversible and Irretrievable Commitment of Resources
H. List of Preparers
I. List of Agencies, Organizations and Persons to Whom Copies
of the Statement are Sent
J. Comments and Coordination
K. Index
L. Appendices
(back to top)
At the Draft EIS stage, the results
of the detailed impact studies are compared to each other
and to the no-action alternative. As the DEIS presents the
results of the detailed impact analyses for each alternative,
it also provides a framework to make these comparisons. The
DEIS therefore provides the necessary information for the
next step in project decision-making, to be expressed in the
Final EIS (FEIS): identifying a preferred alternative.
Once compiled and approved by FHWA, the DEIS document is filed
with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for Federal
Register publication and copies are distributed and made available
to federal, state, and local agencies, private organizations,
and members of the public. A minimum 45-day comment period
follows, during which any party may submit comments. Toward
the beginning of the comment period, a public hearing is scheduled,
at which comments can be submitted in hand-written and/or
verbal formats.
The extent and nature of the comments received on the DEIS
will drive the level of effort and areas of focus of the next
stage of NEPA documentation, the FEIS. Comments may reveal
the need for new or clarifying information and/or may bring
to light new issues that were not identified in the DEIS but
that need to be addressed to fully understand the project’s
effects on the environment.
(back to top)
5. Response to Comments and Preparation
of Final EIS (FEIS) With Preferred Alternative
After the DEIS comment period has closed, preparation of the
FEIS may begin. Based on the comments received on the Draft
EIS, a preferred alternative may be selected from those analyzed,
possibly with modifications to reduce impacts or increase
effectiveness; in some cases if may even be appropriate to
introduce a new alternative at this stage if none of the alternatives
analyzed are satisfactory.
The format of the FEIS parallels that of the DEIS, but the
FEIS contains reference to and justification of the preferred
alternative, updated information on the affected environment,
any changes in the assessment of impacts, proposed mitigation
measures, wetland and floodplain findings (pursuant to Executive
Orders), the results of coordination, comments received on
the DEIS, and responses to these comments. The hearing record
and comments received are printed in the FEIS with specific
responses to every comment.
Similar to the DEIS, after completion and approval of the
FEIS, copies of the approved document are distributed and
made available to federal, state, and local agencies, private
organizations, and members of the public who provided substantive
comments on the DEIS or who requested a copy. Distribution
must be made before or at the same time that the document
is filed with EPA for Federal Register publication. Distribution
is followed by a minimum 30-day review period, after which
the ultimate decision about the future of the project can
be made. This decision is set forth in a Record of Decision
(ROD) by the FHWA. The ROD explains the reasons for the project
decision, based on the information contained in the EIS.
(back to top)
Environmental Streamlining
On September 18, 2002, President Bush
signed Executive
Order 13274, titled Environmental Stewardship and Transportation
Infrastructure Project Reviews. A portion of the executive
order is reproduced below. Part 2(c) of the executive order
calls for a list of priority transportation projects that
should receive review by federal resource agencies, such as
the Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency,
on an expedited basis to the extent practicable. The Chittenden
County Circumferential Highway was included in the initial
priority list.
Environmental streamlining requires transportation and natural,
cultural, and historic resource agencies to establish realistic
timeframes for transportation and environmental resource agencies
to develop and review projects, and then to work cooperatively
to adhere to those timeframes.
Environmental reviews involve an interdisciplinary and interagency
process. One federal agency, in this case FHWA, takes the
lead role working cooperatively with other federal and state
agencies during the entire transportation development process.
This coordinated review process includes input from the public,
as well as from other agencies, to guarantee that all environmental
protections, as well as other issues, are addressed. A key
element of Environmental Streamlining is communication with
and the gathering of input from the public and stakeholders.
In the Circ-Williston EIS, a Cooperating Agency Agreement
has been developed and executed with all state and federal
resource agencies. This agreement calls for interagency meetings
during each phase of the project and prior review of study
documents as they are produced. An extensive public involvement
plan has been developed which includes interviews with local
officials and concerned organizations and individuals, a website
with two-way communication, multiple forms of public information,
and public forums in every phase of the project.
The result of these measures will
be a much more complete and timely environmental process than
in the traditional model of concentrating input and reviews
after the publication of the Draft EIS.
(back to top)
Excerpt from Executive Order 13274
Sec. 2. Actions.
(a) For transportation infrastructure projects, agencies shall,
in support of the Department of Transportation, formulate
and implement administrative, policy, and procedural mechanisms
that enable each agency required by law to conduct environmental
reviews (reviews) with respect to such projects to ensure
completion of such reviews in a timely and environmentally
responsible manner.
(b) In furtherance of the policy set forth in section 1 of
this order, the Secretary of Transportation, in coordination
with agencies as appropriate, shall advance environmental
stewardship through cooperative actions with project sponsors
to promote protection and enhancement of the natural and human
environment in the planning, development, operation, and maintenance
of transportation facilities and services.
(c) The Secretary of Transportation shall designate for the
purposes of this order a list of high-priority transportation
infrastructure projects that should receive expedited agency
reviews and shall amend such list from time to time as the
Secretary deems appropriate. For projects on the Secretary's
list, agencies shall to the maximum extent practicable expedite
their reviews for relevant permits or other approvals, and
take related actions as necessary, consistent with available
resources and applicable laws, including those relating to
safety, public health, and environmental protection.
(back to top)
For More Information about NEPA and
FHWA Environmental Procedures
The FHWA has issued regulations to address their responsibilities
under NEPA, entitled Environmental Impact and Related Procedures
(23 CFR § 771). The complementary FHWA guidance manual
is a Technical Advisory (T.6640.8a), Guidance for Preparing
and Processing Environmental and Section 4(f) Documents. This
guidance provides detailed information on the contents and
processing of environmental documents. Additional information
on the NEPA process and other environmental procedures are
found in the FHWA’s Environmental Guidebook.
Information about these reference materials can be found at
the FHWA website, http://www.fhwa.dot.gov.
A direct link to information about FHWA’s environmental
programs and policies is http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/.
The Guidebook is referenced at http://environment.fhwa.dot.gov/guidebook/gbvol1.htm.
The T.6640.8a Guidance for preparing environmental impact
statements is at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/legsregs/directives/techadvs/t664008a.htm.
The CEQ also provides explanatory information about NEPA provisions
and issues relevant to the NEPA process, at http://ceq.eh.doe.gov/nepa/nepanet.htm.
(back to top)
|
