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MEMORANDUM FOR DEPUTY/ASSISTANT HEADS OF FEDERAL AGENCIES
The purpose of this Memorandum is to ensure that all federal and non-federal cooperating agencies are identified on the cover sheet of each Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) prepared by your agency. In his Memorandum of July 28, 1999, George T. Frampton, Jr., the CEQ Chair, urged all agencies to more actively solicit the participation of state, tribal and local governments as cooperating agencies in implementing the environmental impact statement process under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (copy enclosed). Agencies are now implementing this policy and we expect that there will be more states, tribes and localities involved as cooperating agencies. As a follow up to this policy, we want to be sure that the EIS database maintained for the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) includes information on all non-federal and federal cooperating agencies. CEQ has been working to make this happen and on October 1, 2000, the EPA will begin entering the names of all cooperating agencies in the database. In order to ensure accurate information is collected, federal agencies must list all cooperating agencies (federal and non-federal) on the cover of each EIS as required by Section 1502.11 of the CEQ NEPA regulations. Please ensure that all cooperating agencies are identified on the cover sheet of every EIS issued by your agency. If you have any questions concerning this memorandum, please contact me at 202-395-5750, or Anne Norton Miller, the Acting Director, Office of Federal Activities, EPA, at 202-564-2400.
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