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NOAA Restoration Center Environmental Compliance

Introduction

Every federal action requires an assessment of its environmental impacts, in accordance with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). For actions conducted by NOAA, this assessment must also comply with NOAA Administrative Order (NAO) 216-6, which describes NOAA’s policies, requirements, and procedures for complying with NEPA and the implementing regulations.

The NOAA Restoration Center’s programs provide funding and technical assistance for coastal habitat restoration projects throughout the United States and territories. This support is provided through funding to partner organizations, as well as through technical advisory roles. This support is beneficial to habitat and natural resources. However, environmental impact analyses under NEPA must still be conducted to be certain that temporary negative impacts, long-term changes to the immediate environment, and even beneficial impacts are fully considered.

The Restoration Center’s NEPA Process

Through funding or technical assistance, the Restoration Center supports numerous habitat restoration projects each year. When these projects qualify as federal actions, they are assessed for environmental impacts in accordance with the NEPA process.  The Restoration Center completed programmatic NEPA documents in 2002, 2006, and 2015 to assess the impacts of its habitat restoration activities, reduce administrative costs, and maximize program efficiency.  We also use programmatic analyses of impacts to threatened and endangered species.  Some federal actions fall outside the scope or impacts described in our programmatic documents.  These actions receive individual analyses of their environmental impacts.  The list below contains restoration-focused environmental compliance documents we have completed.  You can also learn more about how we use our Programmatic Environmental Impact statement.

Completed Restoration Environmental Compliance Documents

Document Name	State	Type of Compliance	Project Type	Review Completed
Final Restoration Center Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (pdf 6.91 MB)	National	National Environmental Policy Act	Multiple	June, 2015
Final Primary Restoration Plan And Environmental Assessment For The 2006 T/V Margara Grounding (pdf 5 MB)	Puerto Rico	National Environmental Policy Act	Cora Restoration	April, 2015
Environmental Assessment For Partial Funding for the Sears Point Restoration Project (pdf 2.2 MB)	California	National Environmental Policy Act	Hydrologic Reconnection	September, 2014
Programmatic Restoration Opinion for Joint Ecosystem Conservation by the Services (pdf 4.1 MB)	Oregon, Washington, Idaho	Endangered Species Act, Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act	Multiple	December, 2013
Essential Fish Habitat Programmatic Consultation for Restoration Center Program Activities in Alaska (pdf 629 KB)	Alaska	Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act	Multiple	August, 2012
Programmatic Biological Opinion and Essential Fish Habitat Assessment for Restoration Activities- Northern California Field Office (pdf 1.6 MB)	California	Endangered Species Act, Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act	Multiple	March, 2012
Programmatic Biological Opinion and Essential Fish Habitat Assessment for Restoration Activities- Santa Rosa Field Office (pdf 5.5 MB)	California	Endangered Species Act, Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act	Multiple	June, 2006
Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Assessment for the NOAA CRP (pdf 520 KB)	National	National Environmental Policy Act	Multiple	June, 2006
Environmental Assessment for the NOAA Community-based Restoration Program (pdf 8.8 MB)	National	National Environmental Policy Act	Multiple	February, 2002