8.2.304 GENERAL REQUIREMENTS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW PROCESS
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 8.2.305, 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 8.2.313 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 of
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.
History: Sec. 2-3-103, 2-4-201, MCA; IMP, Sec. 2-3-104, 75-1-201, MCA; NEW, 1988 MAR p. 2692, Eff. 12/23/88.