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National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Enforcement
Top Tasks
National Links
- About NEPA
- Region 5 NEPA management and staff
- Submitting an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or Environmental Assessment
- Special Appropriation Projects
- EIS Comment letters
- EPA Compliance with NEPA (national site)
- Links
Region 5 NEPA Staff
The Region 5 NEPA Implementation Section conducts reviews of other agencies' NEPA documents. It also ensures EPA complies with NEPA in the Region 5 states and Indian Country. All staff has NEPA Compliance responsibilities.
- Ken Westlake (westlake.kenneth@epa.gov) 312-886-2910 : Chief
- 309/NEPA Compliance Coordinator
- Julie Guenther (guenther.julie@epa.gov) 312-886-3172 :
- MN/WI Highways, General Aviation, Forests, Noise, National Parks, Nuclear, GSA, Defense, Energy Efficiency
- Sherry Kamke (kamke.sherry@epa.gov) 312-353-5794 :
- MI/WI Highways, Commercial Airports, Coast Guard, Mining
- Kathleen Kowal (kowal.kathleen@epa.gov) 312-353-5206 :
- Forests, Corps of Engineers, ESA, MI Highways, National Parks, General Aviation, Energy
- Virginia Laszewski (laszewski.virginia@epa.gov)
- 312-886-7501 : IN/MN Highways, General Aviation, NHPA, Pipelines
- Anna Miller (miller.anna@epa.gov) 312-886-7060 :
- OH Highways, Energy, Mining, Nuclear, NEPA Indian Program Liaison
- Norman West (west.norman@epa.gov) 312-353-5692 :
- IL/OH Highways, Railroads, Transit, Pipelines
Submitting an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or Environmental Assessment
Federal agencies: here are the steps to file and submit your EIS to EPA.
- File and submit your environmental impact statements with EPA's Office of Federal Activities
- Submit your EISs with EPA Region 5
- Where:
Deliveries by US Postal Service (incl. USPS Express Mail)
US Environmental Protection Agency Region 5
NEPA Implementation Section (Mail Code E-19J)
77 W. Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60604 - You can make telephone inquiries to: 312-886-2910
- How many copies of the EIS should be sent to EPA Region 5?
In addition to the five copies of the EIS (Draft, Final and Supplemental) that are filed with EPA Headquarters, we ask agencies at a minimum to provide Region 5 with 2 paper copies and 1 CD of an EIS, unless otherwise requested by the NEPA reviewer.
For Environmental Assessments, a single paper copy and a single CD should be sufficient for Region 5, with no submittal to OFA. - When to submit EISs to EPA Region 5
The EIS distribution to the regional office must be complete no later than the date that the EIS is filed with EPA's Office of Federal Activities (see step 1 above).
Special Appropriation Projects
For Special Appropriation Project grantees, EPA recommends use of the Environmental Information Document template (PDF) (19pp, 118K About PDF) to provide information to EPA regarding a proposed project.
EIS Comments
The best way for the public to access past EPA comments is to consult the OFA Environmental Impact Statement Database. It has summaries of EPA comments on EISs going back to 2004 and pdfs of comment letters themselves going back to 2008.
EPA Comments on EISs
2008-present: PDFs of comment letters
2004-2007: summaries of EPA comments on EISs
1970-present: Obtaining Environmental Impact Statements describes how to obtain EISs since the inception of NEPA in 1970. (EPA does not have copies of EISs available for public distribution. Instead, we recommend that you request a copy directly from the agency that prepared the EIS.)
About NEPA
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) establishes national environmental policy and requires federal agencies to integrate environmental values and considerations into their decision making processes by evaluating the environmental impacts of their proposed actions and reasonable alternatives to those actions.
To meet NEPA requirements, federal agencies prepare a detailed document known as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for projects expected to have significant environmental impacts. The EIS process culminates in signing a Record of Decision. Less detailed documents known as Environmental Assessments may be prepared, leading to either a determination that a full EIS is needed or the issuance of a Finding of No Significant Impact. Federal agency actions can be categorically excluded from detailed NEPA analysis if those actions are known to not produce significant environmental impacts and are free of extraordinary circumstances. Each Federal executive agency has its own set of NEPA regulations that describe how NEPA is to be implemented for that agency's activities.
EPA is required by law (Section 309 of the Clean Air Act) to review and comment for the public record on EISs prepared by other federal agencies. EPA also has the discretion to review and comment on EAs and other documents prepared under NEPA. Our goal in commenting on these documents and coordinating with other federal agencies is to improve the environmental outcomes of federal decisions. EPA also maintains a national filing system for all EISs.
Links
NEPAnet CEQ Task Force - A compilation of NEPA information across the Executive Branch, maintained by the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Includes other Federal agencies' NEPA web sites.
Environmental Review Guide for Special Appropriation Grants (PDF) (171pp, 3.4MB) April 2008 (EPA315-K-08-001) handbook for Special Appropriation grant applicants
Online training course on Environmental Review Guide for Special Appropriation Grants covers all the material presented in the NEPA Guide and has interactive quiz questions; it takes approximately 90 minutes to complete.