NEPA Practice: 2005 Update

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Wednesday, October 5, 2005 and
Thursday, October 6, 2005
Oregon Convention Center
777 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
Portland, Oregon
13 General MCLE Credits

Call OLI to register: (503) 768-6580 or (800) 222-8213

SCHEDULE

Wednesday, October 5, 2005

8:30 - 8:45 - Introduction to Course
•Objectives
•Speakers
•Materials
•Agenda

8:45 - 9:15 - NEPA’s Overall Legal and Regulatory Framework
•Introduction and overview of NEPA
•Congressional intent
•Goals and policies of NEPA
•Agency roles
•CEQ and federal agency regulations
•Steps in the NEPA process

9:15 - 11:45 - Writing the Perfect FONSI
(There will be a 15-minute break during this session)
•Ultimate conclusions
•Basic conclusions
•Evidence
•Reasons

11:45 - 1:00 - Lunch
(Optional Lunch and Roundtable Discussion)

1:00 - 1:30 - Mitigated FONSIs: Use and Misuse
•Definition and purpose
•When the courts will support a Mitigated FONSI
•Public notice of availability
•Advantages and disadvantages of Mitigated FONSIs

1:30 - 2:30 - Preparation and Review of NEPA Documents
•Participants and stakeholders in the NEPA process
•Role of CEQ and EPA
•Council on Environmental Quality NEPA regulations
•Implementation by federal agencies
•Types of Environmental Impact Statements
•Who may prepare a NEPA document
•Key steps in preparing documents
- Commencing the EIS: Notice of Intent
- Effective scoping: What CEQ recommends
- Preparing the draft EIS
- Public review and commenting
- Preparing and circulating the final EIS
- The record of decision
•When to prepare a supplement to an EIS

2:30 - 2:45 - Break

2:45 - 4:15 - Writing the Perfect EA or EIS
•Proposal for action
•Need underlying the proposal
•Action alternatives
- Alternative places to go
- Alternative ways to get there
•No-action alternative
•Mitigation not included in the proposal
•Decision factors

4:15 - 4:30 - Review of Issues Covered During Day One
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Thursday, October 6, 2005

8:30 - 8:35 - Summary of First Day and Review of Second Day Materials

8:35 - 10:00 - Writing the Perfect EA or EIS, Continued
•Actions
- Reasons to lump
- Reasons to split
•Impacts
- Direct, indirect, and cumulative
- Increments to past, other present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions
- The perfect cumulative impacts analysis

10:00 - 10:15 - Break

10:15 - 10:45 - Developing Adequate and Feasible Mitigation Measures
•What constitutes an adequate mitigation measure?
•When is a mitigation measure feasible?
•Making mitigation effective and enforceable
•Examples of adequate and inadequate mitigation
•Monitoring mitigation

10:45 - 12:00 - Integrating NEPA with Other Environmental Laws
•Determining which environmental requirements are applicable
- State Environmental Impact Laws
- Endangered Species Act
- National Historic Preservation Act
- Section 404 of the Clean Water Act
- Other requirements
•Ten-step approach to successful integration

12:00 - 1:15 - Lunch
(Optional Lunch and Roundtable Discussion)

1:15 - 2:15 - Writing the Perfect EA or EIS, Continued
•Administrative record
•Wrap-up of sample NEPA document

2:15 - 2:30 - Break

2:30 - 3:00 - Evaluating Environmental Justice under NEPA
•What is environmental justice
•Executive Order 12898
•CEQ guidance
•Agency programs to implement E.O.12898
•Evaluating and identifying “injustice” impacts under NEPA

3:00 - 4:00 - NEPA Decision Making, Appeals, and Litigation
•Review of decision-making process
•Administrative appeals – varying agency procedures
•Importance of the courts in NEPA enforcement
•Trends in NEPA litigation
•Overview of the NEPA litigation process
•Judicial standards of review

4:00 - 4:30 - NEPA’s Effectiveness

Tuition

(Tuition includes refreshments and course materials.)

Accommodations & Directions

Accommodations & Directions

For a list of accommodations near the Oregon Convention Center, visit the Portland Oregon Visitors Association at their website at: http://www.pova. com/

Getting to the Oregon Convention Center: For driving directions, please see the OCC website at: http://www.oregoncc. org/directions/directions. asp

You might also consider taking Tri-Met (Portland's public transportation) to the Oregon Convention Center. For Tri-Met route and schedule information, go to http://www.trimet. org/ and click on “trip planner.”