Interagency Coordination Then and Now
In Washington State we have a long history of collaborative approaches. The original NEPA/404 Merger Agreement was adopted by its signatory agencies in 1995 and revised in 1996. Significant revisions to the 1996 Agreement were collaboratively developed by the Signatory Agency Committee (SAC) to improve the process and were formally adopted in 2002.
In 2005, FHWA and FTA issued their joint guidance following the passage of the SAFETEA-LU highway funding bill. Section 6002 of the bill, layed out a new process for involving the public and governmental agencies when developing an environmental impact statement (EIS). In 2006-2007, WSDOT worked with the Signatory Agency Committee to create the Statewide Advisory Group for Environmental Stewardship (SAGES). This evolution of the Signatory Agency Committee became an apparent step in light of the new requirements under SAFETEA-LU. The SAGES continue to make use of the institutional knowledge and statewide view of the SAC and its members.
Who is involved and what are their roles?
Currently, members of the group consist of representatives from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Washington Dept. of Ecology, Washington Dept. of Archeology and Historic Preservation, US Fish & Wildlife Service, US Army Corps of Engineers, and the US Environmental Protection Agency. Due to resource constraints, the Washington Dept. of Fish & Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries Service can only provide limited participation.
We formed the SAGES to serve two purposes: (1) as an interagency standing committee to discuss recurring issues, concerns, and potential process improvements, and (2) as a project kickoff forum for project teams beginning their EIS process.
For project teams getting ready to begin their EIS, meeting with the SAGES as early as practicable before the issuance of the Notice of Intent (NOI), is imperative and key to a project’s success. The intent and result of the presentation is for the SAGES members to provide project proponents feedback on possible socioeconomic and natural resource issues that could substantially delay permit approval or have a negative effect on the project's schedule. They will also provide informal advisory comment on the draft project purpose and need and insight on developing the needed permit information concurrently with the development of the environmental document.
The ultimate goal in using the SAGES forum is for project teams to be able to complete the NEPA process having defined a project that will be permittable by federal and state resource agencies all the while incorporating appropriate environmental protection measures and mitigation.
Different from the former SAC process that required concurrence at specific NEPA milestones, project teams only need to meet with the SAGES this one time. Comments received are considered advisory and the EIS process may continue without formal concurrence from the agencies. Prior to the kick-off meeting, project teams need to prepare and distribute an “Environmental Pre-Scoping Package" at least 14-days in advance of the scheduled meeting.
The Environmental Pre-Scoping Package consists of the following template documents (these templates are also available in a format that can be edited):
Regular meetings generally occur on a quarterly basis and are scheduled early in January, but can be scheduled as appropriate to coincide your project schedule. Please contact Cheryl McNamara at 360-705-7490 for information on when and how to be added to the meeting agenda or if you have questions about this process.