Читать книгу Industrial Environmental Management - Tapas K. Das - Страница 105

The purpose of the NEPA is to promote informed decision making by federal agencies by making “detailed information concerning significant environmental impacts” available to both agency leaders and the public (Robertson v. Methow Valley Citizens Council 1989). The NEPA was the first piece of legislation that created a comprehensive method to assess potential and existing environmental risks at once. It also encourages communication and cooperation between all the actors involved in environmental decisions, including government officials, private businesses, and citizens (Felleman 2013).

In particular, an EIS acts as an enforcement mechanism to ensure that the federal government adheres to the goals and policies outlined in the NEPA. An EIS should be created in a timely manner as soon as the agency is planning development or is presented with a proposal for development. The statement should use an interdisciplinary approach so that it accurately assesses both the physical and social impacts of the proposed development (EIS 2010). In many instances an action may be deemed subject to NEPA's EIS requirement even though the action is not specifically sponsored by a federal agency. These factors may include actions that receive federal funding, federal licensing, or authorization, or that are subject to federal control (Eccleston 2008).

An EIS typically has four sections (Eccleston 2014):

1 An introduction including a statement of the purpose and need of the proposed action.

2 A description of the affected environment.

3 A range of alternatives to the proposed action. Alternatives are considered the “heart” of the EIS.An analysis of the environmental impacts of each of the possible alternatives. This section covers topics such as the following:Impacts to threatened or endangered speciesAir and water quality impactsImpacts to historic and cultural sites, particularly sites of significant importance to indigenous peoples.Social and economic impacts to local communities, often including consideration of attributes such as impacts to available housing stock, economic impacts to businesses, property values, aesthetics, and noise within the affected area.Cost analysis for each alternative, including costs to mitigate expected impacts, to determine if the proposed action is a prudent use of taxpayer dollars.