National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Compliance at Sandia
Project Description and Significance
A comprehensive National Environmental Policy Act Program exists at Sandia to ensure consistent implementation of NEPA, and to assist the DOE in:
Considering the significance of the environmental impacts of proposed Sandia actions
Informing the public that DOE has considered environmental concerns in its decisionmaking process
Implementing the requirements of the DOE regulations and orders associated with NEPA compliance.
The Sandia NEPA Compliance Program provides guidance and assistance to Sandia project managers and also develops tools such as baseline reports and NEPA compliance guides.
Sandia's Contribution
Baseline reports support NEPA documents. They include cultural resources reports and reports on the occurrence and distribution of biological resources. These reports provide a source of detailed information on the affected environment. They also allow agencies to focus environmental documents on significant environmental issues and alternatives and to reduce the accumulation of extraneous background data in NEPA documents. The existence of detailed baseline reports prior to the existence of a proposal for a new project or facility provides the building blocks from which good environmental documents can be efficiently produced.
Other essential tools prepared by the NEPA program are NEPA compliance guides. Such guides serve as road maps for NEPA practitioners who must find their way through the maze of NEPA-related statutes, regulations, executive orders, other guidance documents, and court opinions.
The Compliance Program, located in Department 7315 (Risk Management and NEPA), also assists and sometimes teams with Department 6626 (Environmental Regulatory Assessment). This department writes environmental assessments and environmental impact statements for DOE headquarters and other organizations.
Submitted October 1996