Current through Register Vol. 18, September 20, 2024
Section
75-1-201, MCA, requires state
agencies to integrate use of the natural and social sciences and the
environmental design arts in planning and in decision-making, and to prepare a
detailed statement (an EIS) on each proposal for projects, programs,
legislation, and other major actions of state government significantly
affecting the quality of the human environment. In order to determine the level
of environmental review for each proposed action that is necessary to comply
with 75-1-201, MCA, the agency shall
apply the following criteria:
(1) The
agency shall prepare an EIS as follows:
(a)
whenever an EA indicates that an EIS is necessary; or
(b) whenever, based on the criteria in ARM
12.2.431, the proposed action is a
major action of state government significantly affecting the quality of the
human environment.
(2)
An EA may serve any of the following purposes:
(a) to ensure that the agency uses the
natural and social sciences and the environmental design arts in planning and
decision-making. An EA may be used independently or in conjunction with other
agency planning and decision-making procedures;
(b) to assist in the evaluation of reasonable
alternatives and the development of conditions, stipulations or modifications
to be made a part of a proposed action;
(c) to determine the need to prepare an EIS
through an initial evaluation and determination of the significance of impacts
associated with a proposed action;
(d) to ensure the fullest appropriate
opportunity for public review and comment on proposed actions, including
alternatives and planned mitigation, where the residual impacts do not warrant
the preparation of an EIS; and
(e)
to examine and document the effects of a proposed action on the quality of the
human environment, and to provide the basis for public review and comment,
whenever statutory requirements do not allow sufficient time for an agency to
prepare an EIS. The agency shall determine whether sufficient time is available
to prepare an EIS by comparing statutory requirements that establish when the
agency must make its decision on the proposed action with the time required by
ARM 12.2.439 to obtain public review
of an EIS plus a reasonable period to prepare a draft EIS and, if required, a
final EIS.
(3) The
agency shall prepare an EA whenever:
(a) the
action is not excluded under (5) and it is not clear without preparation of an
EA whether the proposed action is a major one significantly affecting the
quality of the human environment;
(b) the action is not excluded under (5) and
although an EIS is not warranted, the agency has not otherwise implemented the
interdisciplinary analysis and public review purposes listed in (2) (a) and (d)
through a similar planning and decision-making process; or
(c) statutory requirements do not allow
sufficient time for the agency to prepare an EIS.
(4) The agency may, as an alternative to
preparing an EIS, prepare an EA whenever the action is one that might normally
require an EIS, but effects which might otherwise be deemed significant appear
to be mitigable below the level of significance through design, or enforceable
controls or stipulations or both imposed by the agency or other government
agencies. For an EA to suffice in this instance, the agency must determine that
all of the impacts of the proposed action have been accurately identified, that
they will be mitigated below the level of significance, and that no significant
impact is likely to occur. The agency may not consider compensation for
purposes of determining that impacts have been mitigated below the level of
significance.
(5) The agency is not
required to prepare an EA or an EIS for the following categories of action:
(a) actions that qualify for a categorical
exclusion as defined by rule or justified by a programmatic review. In the rule
or programmatic review, the agency shall identify any extraordinary
circumstances in which a normally excluded action requires an EA or
EIS;
(b) administrative actions:
routine, clerical or similar functions of a department, including but not
limited to administrative procurement, contracts for consulting services, and
personnel actions;
(c) minor
repairs, operations, or maintenance of existing equipment or
facilities;
(d) investigation and
enforcement: data collection, inspection of facilities or enforcement of
environmental standards;
(e)
ministerial actions: actions in which the agency exercises no discretion, but
rather acts upon a given state of facts in a prescribed manner; and
(f) actions that are primarily social or
economic in nature and that do not otherwise affect the human
environment.
Sec.
2-3-103,
2-4-201, MCA; IMP, Sec.
2-3-104,
75-1-201,
MCA;
