Why merge NEPA and Section 404 of the Clean Water Act?
In the early 1990’s, the federal Administration recognized the opportunity to incorporate NEPA planning and decision-making with the regulatory permitting process and decisions under the Clean Water Act. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) formally recognized this potential streamlining initiative and signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) entitled “Implementation of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act” (ISTEA) on May 1, 1992, to address the general agreement of ‘merging’ the two processes. There is a ‘common sense’ overlap in certain critical path project requirements under NEPA and Section 404 of the Clean Water Act that can be integrated into one ‘merged’ process. In North Carolina, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), USACE-Wilmington District and the North Carolina Department of Transportation signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) entitled “An Interagency
