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MANUAFLO R ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT EVALUATION SHERMANR OSEN J. MANUAL FOR ENVIRONMENTA L IMPACT EVALUATION MANUAL FOR ENVIRONMENTA L IMPACT EVALUATION SHERMAN J. ROSEN PRENTICE-HALL, INC. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data ROSEN, SHERMAN J (date) Manual for environmental impact evaluation. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Environmental impact statements. I. Title. TD194.5.R67 363.6 75-20647 © 1976 by Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Printed in the United States of America PRENTICE-HALL INTERNATIONAL, INC., London PRENTICE-HALL OF AUSTRALIA, PTY. LTD., Sydney PRENTICE-HALL OF CANADA, LTD., Toronto PRENTICE-HALL OF INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, New Delhi PRENTICE-HALL OF JAPAN, INC., Tokyo PRENTICE-HALL OF SOUTH EAST ASIA, PTE. LTD., Singapore CONTENTS Preface vii 1 Introduction 1 2 Background 4 3 History of Project Review 10 4 The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 12 5 Public Participation and Agency Coordination 31 6 Assessment Concepts 36 7 Pollution Possibilities 47 8 Ecological and Environmental Inventory 63 9 Socio-Economics 74 10 Land Use 79 11 Historic and Archeological Sites 82 12 Graphic Aids - Remote Sensing 85 13 The Draft Environmental Statement 91 14 Public Meetings and Hearings 96 15 The Final Statement 99 16 Author's Note 101 V vi Contents Appendices I National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 103 2 Council on Environmental Quality Guidelines 111 3 Office of Management Circular A-95, Revised 147 4 National List of State Clearinghouses 167 5 Section 4(f) 173 6 Mathematical Evaluation System 177 7 Sample Draft Environmental Statement 189 Index 229 PREFACE The passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) fostered the need for environmental evaluation or assessment. Ground rules and guidance were almost non existent as only the intent of the law was firmly established, leaving such minor difficulties as interpretation, procedure, scope and format to over come. To fill this void representatives of almost every interest and discipline were recruited or volunteered to act as practitioners of the new mystic "science." Since that time many of the more pressing problems have been brought under control and a semblance of order has started to so lidify. During that period a greater interest in the evaluation process was generated throughout the scientific world as well as in all levels of government. However, no base book was available to even ac quaint those people to the intricacies of this fledgling field. The need was truly dramatic; not so the literary efforts which required almost four years to finalize as philosophy, requirements, techniques and procedures were in a state of flux. vii viii Preface The need is still, in my opinion, dramatic; however, the manual is complete and hopefully will serve its intended purpose of intro ducing the evaluation process and some supporting rationale. A full text on this subject matter with its broad range of en vironmental factors, relationships, and interrelationships will some day be published. However, in the interim I am hopeful this manual will serve as an introduction to the subject. I wish to thank the following friends and associates for their time, efforts, and generous contributions without which this manual would never have been completed: Dr. Richard Wagner, Robert Blanco, Thomas Maurer, Joseph Layton, Prof. William King, Dr. David Long, Michael Oslac, Dr. Robert Scherer, Dr. Hayes Gamble, Dr. Ronald Shelton, and John V. Buffington, Attorney-at-Law, who wrote the chapter on NEPA Law. I also want to thank my doctoral committee: Dean Charles Olson, Prof. William Johnson, Dr. William Bentley, and Dr. Richard Andrews. Thanks also to my intrepid typist, Mrs. Doris DeHart; draftsman, Glenn E. Toberman; and finally to my wife Frances who spent many hours without her husband. J. SHERMAN ROSEN I INTRODUCTION And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: "There is both good news and bad news. The good news is that plagues shall smite your Egyptian oppressors. The Nile shall be turned to blood, and frogs and locusts shall cover the fields,a nd gnats and -flies shall infest the Pharaoh's people, and their cattle shall die and rot in the pastures, and hail and darkness shall visit punishment upon the land of Egypt! Then will I lead the children of Israel forth, parting the waters of the Red Sea so that they may cross, and thereafter strewing the desert with manna so that they may eat." And Moses said, "O Lord, that's wonderful/ But tell me, what's the bad news?" And the Lord God replied, "It will be up to you, Moses, to write the environmental-impact statement." 0 Section 102 ( 2 )( c) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 1 requires an environmental evaluation of the major federal actions that could significantly affect environmental quality. The review is known as the NEPA assessment process, and the resulting document is called an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) . 0 Originally appeared in PLAYBOY Magazine; copyright © 1975 by Playboy. 1 Appendix 1. 1