A law enacted in 1969 that required government agencies to make consideration of the impacts of their actions on the natural and human environments part of their decisionmaking processes. The lead agency for this EIS will be the Federal Highway Administration.
For any action using federal funding or requiring federal approval, documentation that the agency has considered the impacts of its decisions on the environment is required under NEPA. Depending on the size and impact of the action, NEPA may require a documentation that the action requires no further consideration under NEPA (a Categorical Exclusion, called different things in different agencies), an Environmental Assessment, or, for the largest and most significant actions, an Environmental Impact Statement.
