NEPA, or the National Environmental Policy Act, has been an essential part of the EPA since it was signed into law in 1970. As one of the first major environmental laws created in the United States, NEPA has been described as the environmental equivalent of the “Magna Carta” . The main goal of NEPA is to use all practicable means to create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony. In order to achieve this goal, NEPA requires federal agencies to assess the environmental and social factors of their proposed actions, including making decisions on permit applications, adopting federal land management plans, and constructing highways or publicly-owned facilities. In addition, NEPA utilizes Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements to investigate the probability of impacts from alternative courses of action.
Undergoing the NEPA Review process can be a daunting task. In order to steamline the process we’ve created the NEPA Checklist to ensure that all relevant databases are pulled together into a single document:
- National Parks and Forests
- Archaeological and Historic Sites
- Federal Emergency Management Areas
- Threatened and Endangered Species
- ETC
The NEPA Checklist covers a wide range of federal databases including the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and more to create a readable, user friendly report. This checklist also integrates a few of our other reports such as our FEMA Floodplain Map, National Wetland Inventory Report, and Endangered Species Review to insure no stone is left unturned.
Environmental Professionals and federal agencies alike rely on our NEPA Checklist for environmental site assessments and other federal projects. For an all-around site assessment, we recommend our clients combine the NEPA Package Checklist with our Historic Aerials Package, Historic Topographic Maps, and Regulatory Database Reports.
You can find more information about NEPA’s history and goals here: https://www.epa.gov/nepa * https://ceq.doe.gov/
Aaron Pearce
Environmental Research Associate