Applying value engineering and modern assessment tools in managing NEPA:211 Improving effectiveness of the NEPA scoping and planning process

摘要

While the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) implementing regulations focus211u001eon describing 'what' must be done, they provide surprisingly little direction on 211u001e'how' such requirements are to be implemented. Specific implementation of these 211u001erequirements has largely been left to the discretion of individual agencies. More 211u001ethan a quarter of a century after NEPA's enactment, few rigorous tools, 211u001etechniques, or methodologies have been developed or widely adopted for 211u001eimplementing the regulatory requirements. In preparing an Environmental Impact 211u001eStatement, agencies are required to conduct a public scoping process to determine 211u001ethe range of actions, alternatives, and impacts that will be investigated. 211u001eDetermining the proper scope of analysis is an element essential to the 211u001esuccessful planning and implementation of future agency actionns. Lack of 211u001erigorous tools and methodologies can lead to project delays, cost escalating, and 211u001eincreased risk that the scoping process may not adequately capture the scope of 211u001edecisions that eventually might need to be considered. Recently, selected Value 211u001eEngineering (VE) techniques were successfully used in managing a prescoping 211u001eeffort. A new strategy is advanced for conducting a pre-scoping/scoping effort 211u001ethat combines NEPA with VE. Consisting of five distinct phases, this approach has 211u001epotentially wide-spread implications in the way NEPA, and scoping in particular, 211u001eis practiced.