Reasons and strategies for more effective NEPA implementation

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) calls for an integrated approach to planning by federal agencies, with environmental issues being emphasized along with other types of planning concerns (i.e., financial, technical, and political). Because of NEPA, federal agencies have become more aware that environmental concerns must be addressed in their planning processes. However, a recent survey of NEPA practitioners indicated that many members of this group believe that deficiencies exist in the NEPA implementation processes of some federal agencies. According to the survey responses, the principal deficiencies are: (1) the tendency to use environmental impact statements as decision-implementation rather than decision-making documents; (2) the lack of effective planning and follow-up concerning mitigation measures identified by the NEPA process; and (3) NEPA overkill, particularly in the preparation of extensively detailed environmental assessments. As a result, NEPA may be addressed only cursorily as an afterthought, or the procedural aspects of NEPA document preparation may be overemphasized. Neither approach is conducive to serious planning and follow-up for impact mitigation measures. The results of the survey are discussed, as are the causes and possible solutions of these problems.