[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 182 (Friday, September 18, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58349-58351]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-20543]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[ER-FRL-9052-8]


Amended Environmental Impact Statement Filing System Guidance

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

[[Page 58350]]


ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is amending its 
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Filing System Guidance. The 
purpose of the EPA EIS Filing System Guidelines is to provide guidance 
to Federal agencies on filing EISs, including draft, final, and 
supplemental EISs.

DATES: The amended EIS Filing System Guidance is available on the date 
of publication of this notice.

ADDRESSES: The amended EIS Filing System Guidance is available via the 
internet at https://www.epa.gov/nepa/environmental-impact-statement-filing-guidance.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Julie Roemele, NEPA Compliance 
Division, Office of Federal Activities, Mail Code 2203A, Environmental 
Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460; 
telephone number: 202-564-5632; fax number: 202-564-0070; email 
address: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Introduction

    On October 7, 1977, the Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) and 
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed a Memorandum of 
Agreement (MOA) that allocated the responsibilities of the two agencies 
for assuring the government-wide implementation of the National 
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). Specifically, the MOA 
transferred to EPA the administrative aspects of the environmental 
impact statement (ElS) filing process. Within EPA, the Office of 
Federal Activities has been designated the official recipient in EPA of 
all EISs. These responsibilities have been codified in CEQ's NEPA 
Implementing Regulations (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), and are totally 
separate from the substantive EPA reviews performed pursuant to both 
NEPA and Section 309 of the Clean Air Act.
    Under 40 CFR 1506.10, EPA can issue guidelines to implement its EIS 
filing responsibilities. The purpose of the EPA Filing System 
Guidelines is to provide guidance to Federal agencies on filing EISs, 
including draft, final, and supplemental EISs. Information is provided 
on: (1) How to file EISs; (2) the steps to follow when a Federal agency 
is adopting an EIS, or when an EIS is withdrawn, delayed or reopened; 
(3) public review periods; (4) issuance of notices of availability in 
the Federal Register; and (5) retention of filed EISs.
    The guidelines published today update the previous guidelines, 
which were first published in the Federal Register on August 24, 2012. 
These updated guidelines have been modified to incorporate changes 
necessary to make it consistent with the updated CEQ NEPA regulations. 
85 FR 43304 (July 16, 2020).

Purpose

    Pursuant to 40 CFR 1506.10 and 1506.11, EPA is responsible for 
administering the EIS filing process, and can issue guidelines to 
implement those responsibilities. The process of EIS filing includes 
the following: (1) Receiving and recording of the EISs, so that 
information in them can be incorporated into EPA's electronic EIS 
database; (2) establishing the beginning and ending dates for comment 
and review periods for draft and final EISs, respectively; (3) 
publishing these dates in a weekly Notice of Availability (NOA) in the 
Federal Register; (4) retaining the EISs in a central repository; and 
(5) determining whether time periods can be lengthened or shortened for 
``compelling reasons of national policy.''

Filing Draft, Final, and Supplemental EISs

    Federal agencies are required to prepare EISs in accordance with 40 
CFR part 1502, and to file the EISs with EPA as specified in 40 CFR 
1506.10.
    As of October 1, 2012, Federal agencies file an EIS by submitting 
the complete EIS, including appendices, to EPA through the e-NEPA 
electronic filing system.
    Please note that if a Federal agency prepares an abbreviated Final 
EIS (as described in 40 CFR 1503.4(c)), it should include a new cover 
sheet on the Draft EIS when filing it as the Final EIS. To sign up for 
e-NEPA, register for an account at https://cdx.epa.gov/, select ``NEPA 
Electronic Filing System (e-NEPA)'' when prompted to add a program. 
Inquiries can also be made to: (202) 564-5632 or (202) 564-4462 or by 
email to: [email protected]. The e-NEPA Guide on Registration and 
Preparing an EIS for Electronic Submission is available on EPA's 
website at https://www.epa.gov/nepa/e-nepa-guide-registration-and-preparing-eis-electronic-submission. EPA recommends that filers review 
this guidance before filing the EIS to ensure that the documents are 
properly formatted and meet the file size requirements.
    Once received by EPA, each EIS is assigned an official filing date 
and checked for completeness and compliance with 40 CFR 1502.10. If the 
EIS is not ``complete'' (i.e., if the documents do not contain the 
required components), EPA will contact the lead agency to obtain the 
omitted information or to resolve any questions prior to publishing the 
NOA in the Federal Register.
    The EIS submittal deadline is on Mondays at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time 
for publication that same week in Friday's Federal Register. When 
Mondays are designated federal holidays, the deadline will be 10:00 
a.m. Eastern Time of the Friday before the federal holiday until 
further notice.
    The EISs must be filed no earlier than they are transmitted to 
participating agencies and made available to the public (40 CFR 
1506.10). This will assure that the EIS is received by all interested 
parties by the time EPA's NOA appears in the Federal Register, and, 
therefore, allows for the full minimum comment and review periods. If 
EPA receives a request to file an EIS and transmittal of that EIS is 
not complete, it will not publish a NOA in the Federal Register until 
assurances have been given that the transmittal process is complete. 
Similarly, if EPA discovers that a filed EIS has not been transmitted 
by the lead agency, EPA will issue a notice with the weekly NOA 
retracting the EIS from public review of the EIS until the transmittal 
process is completed. Once the agency has fulfilled the requirements of 
40 CFR 1506.10, and has completed the transmittal process, EPA will 
reestablish the filing date and the minimum comment or review period, 
and will publish this information in the next NOA. Requirements for 
publication of EISs appear in 40 CFR 1502.20. Please note that the EIS 
submitted to the Office of Federal Activities through e-NEPA is only 
for filing purposes.

Adoptions

    EPA must be notified when a Federal agency adopts an EIS in order 
to commence the appropriate comment or review period. If a Federal 
agency chooses to adopt an EIS written by another agency, and it was 
not a cooperating agency in the preparation of the original EIS, the 
EIS must be republished and filed with EPA according to the 
requirements set forth in 40 CFR 1506.3(b)(1). In turn, EPA will 
publish a NOA in the Federal Register announcing that the document will 
have an appropriate comment or review period.
    When an agency adopts an EIS on which it served as a cooperating 
agency (40 CFR 1506.3(b)(2)), the document does not need to be 
republished for public comment or review; it is not necessary to file 
the EIS again with EPA.

[[Page 58351]]

However, EPA should be notified in order to ensure that the official 
EIS record is accurate. Notifications can be sent by email to: [email protected]. Official notification is a signed letter on agency 
letterhead by an appropriate approving official. EPA will publish a NOA 
in the Federal Register that states that an adoption has occurred. This 
will not establish a comment or review period, but will complete the 
public record.

Withdrawing, Delaying, or Reopening a Comment or Review Period

    EPA should also be notified of all situations where an agency has 
decided to withdraw, delay, or reopen a comment or review period on an 
EIS. Notifications can be sent by email to: [email protected]. 
Official notification may be a signed letter on agency letterhead by an 
appropriate approving official or a copy of the agency's published 
Federal Register public notice detailing a withdraw, delay or a 
reopening of a comment or review period. All such notices to EPA will 
be reflected in EPA's weekly NOA published in the Federal Register. In 
the case of reopening an EIS comment or review periods, the lead agency 
should notify EPA as to what measures will be taken to ensure that the 
EIS is available to all interested parties. This is especially 
important for EISs that are being reopened after a substantial amount 
of time has passed since the original comment or review period closed.

Notice in the Federal Register

    EPA will prepare a weekly report of all EISs filed during the 
preceding week for publication each Friday under an NOA in the Federal 
Register. If the Friday is a Federal holiday the publication will be on 
Thursday. At the time EPA sends its weekly report for publication in 
the Federal Register, the report will also be sent to the CEQ. Amended 
notices may be added to the NOA to include corrections, changes in 
comment or review periods of previously filed EISs, withdrawals of EISs 
by lead agencies, and retractions of EISs by EPA.

Comment/Review Periods

    The minimum time periods set forth in 40 CFR 1506.11 (b), (c), and 
(d) are calculated from the date EPA publishes the NOA in the Federal 
Register.
    Comment periods for draft EISs, draft supplements, and revised 
draft EISs will end 45 calendar days after publication of the NOA in 
the Federal Register; review periods for final EISs and final 
supplements will end 30 calendar days after publication of the NOA in 
the Federal Register, unless otherwise provided by law. If a calculated 
comment or review period ends on a weekend or holiday, then the comment 
or review period would end on the next Federal business day. While 
these comment or review periods are minimum time periods, a lead agency 
may establish longer comment or review periods when filing the EIS 
through e-NEPA.
    If the lead agency extends the comment or review period after the 
publication of EPA's NOA, it must notify EPA of the extended comment or 
review period by submitting an official notification to EPA Office of 
Federal Activities. Official notification may be a signed letter on 
agency letterhead by an appropriate approving official or a copy of the 
agency's published Federal Register public notice detailing a comment 
or review period extension. For more detail on the process, please 
contact [email protected].
    Agencies often publish (either in their EISs or individual notices 
to the public) a date by which all comments on an EIS are to be 
received; such actions are encouraged. However, agencies should ensure 
that the date they use is based on the date of publication of EPA's NOA 
in the Federal Register. If the published date gives reviewers less 
than the minimum review time computed by EPA, EPA will contact the 
agency explaining how the comment/review period is calculated and the 
correct date by which comments are due back to the lead agency. In 
these cases, EPA encourages agencies to notify all reviewers and 
interested parties of the corrected comment/review periods.
    It should be noted that 40 CFR 1506.11(c) allows for an exception 
to the rules of timing. An exception may be made in the case of an 
agency decision which is subject to a formal internal appeal. Agencies 
should assure that EPA is informed when the agency determines to run 
the period for appeal of the decision concurrent with the 30-day review 
period so that it can be coordinated with EPA's NOA publication in the 
Federal Register.
    Moreover, under 40 CFR 1506.11(e), EPA has the authority to extend 
or reduce the time periods on draft and final EISs based on a 
demonstration of ``compelling reasons of national policy.'' A lead 
agency request to EPA to reduce comment or review periods or another 
Federal agency (not the lead agency) request to formally extend a time 
period should be submitted in writing to the Director, Office of 
Federal Activities, and outline the reasons for the request. These 
requests can be submitted by email to: [email protected]. A meeting to 
discuss the consequences for the project and any decision to change 
comment or review periods may be necessary. For this reason, EPA asks 
that it be made aware of any intent to submit requests of this type as 
early as possible in the NEPA process. This is to prevent the 
possibility of the time frame for the decision on the comment or review 
period modification from interfering with the lead agency's schedule 
for the EIS. EPA will notify CEQ of any reduction or extension granted.

Retention

    Filed EISs are retained in the EPA EIS database and made available 
to the public through EPA's website. After a total of fifteen (15) 
years the EISs are transferred to the National Archives Records 
Administration. The retention schedule does not affect the availability 
of these electronic copies.

    Dated: September 14, 2020.
Cindy S. Barger,
Director, NEPA Compliance Division, Office of Federal Activities.
[FR Doc. 2020-20543 Filed 9-17-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P