The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 is one of the nation’s oldest environmental laws that encourages federal agencies to make environmentally responsible decisions. NEPA requires all federal agencies to consider and disclose the environmental effects of their proposed actions in an environmental impact statement. The Citizen's Guide to NEPA explains this law and how to effectively submit your input.
Similarly, the Washington State Environmental Policy Act, known as SEPA, requires identification and evaluation of probable environmental impacts and mitigation measures related to agency decisions.
To satisfy the requirements of NEPA and SEPA, the Corps and Sponsor Ports will be jointly preparing an integrated EIS for the Plan. The Washington Sponsor Ports will be co-lead agencies under SEPA, with the Port of Longview serving as the nominal SEPA lead agency for purposes of SEPA compliance.
Collecting the right level of information at the right time is important to developing this plan. This requires early and frequent engagement of all affected federal, state and local agencies, affected Native American Tribes, and interested groups and individuals.
Examples of areas for evaluation in the EIS include: