Compliance

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How does the Environmental Services Office (ESO) help WSDOT comply with environmental laws?

In addition to its other responsibilities, the ESO helps WSDOT comply with environmental laws by:

• Providing guidance on environmental laws and procedures.
• Providing environmental Geographic Information System (GIS) services.
• Providing project-specific help to other WSDOT offices.
• Developing and implementing an Environmental Management System (EMS) for tracking, assessing, and improving compliance.

What guidance on environmental laws and procedures is available?

General:

• WSDOT Environmental Procedures Manual
• Interagency Agreements
• Environmental Compliance Assurance Procedure

Specific to Project Scoping:

• Critical Path Timelines for Project Delivery
• Project Summary Forms / Instructions

Specific to Environmental Review:

• National Environmental Policy Act / State Environmental Policy Act Guidance
• Endangered Species Act Guidance
• Land and Water Conservation Fund Act, Section 4(f) Guidance
• Department of Transportation Act, Section 6(f) Guidance
• Environmental Justice

Specific to Environmental Permitting:

• Federal
• Tribal
• State
• Local
• Programmatic Permits

What environmental Geographic Information System (GIS) services are available?

A wide variety of general reference and environmental data is available at:

• GIS (Geographic Information System) Workbench

What types of project-specific help do we provide?

We provide:

• Assistance with environmental impact analysis:

We help other offices apply the federal NEPA and state SEPA environmental review processes to transportation projects requiring an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or Environmental Assessment (EA).

More specifically, we provide the following services to WSDOT Regions, Modes, Highways and Local Programs offices and local transportation agencies:

• Lead Project Development
• Serve on EIS Interdisciplinary Teams
• Provide NEPA and SEPA Environmental Review policy and technical guidance
• Review Environmental Documents for technical sufficiency
• Lead the technical review of environmental documents by WSDOT discipline specialists
• Lead the formal approval of EIS and EA documents
• Maintain a statewide database of EAs and EISs
• Lead environmental documentation process improvements and streamlining efforts

• Assistance with environmental permitting:

We also help other WSDOT offices, including Design, Construction, Maintenance, Region Project Offices, the Multi-Agency Permitting (MAP) Team, the Urban Corridors Office, Highways and Local Programs, and Washington State Ferries:

• Identify the types of permits that may be needed for a project
• Determine if a project is eligible, or can be modified to be eligible, to use any programmatic permits
• Prepare Joint Aquatic Resources Permit Applications (JARPAs) and use on-line JARPA permitting tools, especially for bridge work.

 

What are we doing to develop and implement an Environmental Management System?

WSDOT has developed several components of an Environmental Management System (EMS) that will include the policies, procedures, tools, training, and auditing elements required to ensure that environmental requirements are effectively and efficiently met.

Contact for this page: Bruce Smith

[Environmental Services] [Compliance]

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