§ 26.14 — Environmental practices.

§ 26.14 Environmental practices.

(a) Efficiency. VA seeks out opportunities to avoid duplication and delay in the approval of VA actions by integrating the NEPA process into the VA decision-making process as early as possible. For this reason, VA promotes an agency-wide system of NEPA analysis in this part for quality assessment of environmental effects.

(b) Capability. VA will maintain the staff and resources necessary to comply with the requirements of this part. VA may use a contractor or other third party to meet the requirements of NEPA and the procedures in this part, provided VA retains sufficient resources to evaluate the work of those non-VA entities.

(c) Similar actions. VA will analyze similar actions the same way regardless of the proponent or funding source.

(d) Combining NEPA with other environmental and historic preservation requirements. VA encourages all VA elements to integrate the effects analyses required by other Federal and State environmental laws into the NEPA process to the maximum extent practicable. Through integration into one decision-making process, VA improves the quality of analysis of environmental effects, reduces project delays, and enhances the scoping process for discovering relevant environmental issues.

(1) Environmental laws. VA will integrate evaluation required by other environmental laws into the NEPA process, including but not limited to section 106 of the NHPA (54 U.S.C. 306108), section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (16 U.S.C. 1536), and section 404 of the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. 1344). VA achieves meaningful integration by synchronizing the timing of reviews under separate laws, removing duplication for requirements such as public comment periods when allowable, and ensuring that the NEPA analysis includes a discussion of the applicable laws and results of any consultation or analysis. VA may also use NEPA as a substitute for section 106 of the NHPA (54 U.S.C. 306108), as allowable under 36 CFR 800.8(c), when the stipulated requirements are met.

(2) Timing. VA will integrate other environmental laws into the NEPA process as early as possible. Each environmental law has its own timing requirements. Where VA can initiate or conduct consultations and permits during the NEPA (planning) phase for a project, VA may integrate them into the NEPA review.

(3) Responsibility. The NEPA Specialist and proponent are responsible for early integration of other environmental laws. The NEPA Specialist advises on the environmental laws applicable to the action.

(4) Documentation. VA will integrate documentation of compliance with other environmental requirements into the NEPA process and include this documentation in the documentation created during the NEPA analysis.

(5) Executive orders. VA will integrate compliance with Executive orders related to environmental issues into the NEPA process. VA recognizes its duty to promote the policies set forth in Executive orders that address environmental issues evaluated in NEPA documents, including but not limited to environmental designations such as floodplains, environmental quality, and resource protection.

(e) Programmatic NEPA documents. VA prepares programmatic NEPA documents to analyze all or some of the environmental effects of a policy, program, plan, or group of related actions. VA can use programmatic NEPA documents as stand-alone documents when sufficient information is available to evaluate all potential effects or when VA anticipates subsequent analysis for specific projects once additional information is available. A programmatic NEPA document pre-positions environmental information for VA decision-makers to expedite the approval process of a VA action and eliminates repetitive discussions of the same issues. See § 26.70 for VA requirements for a programmatic NEPA analysis.

(f) Connected actions. VA will address connected actions in a single NEPA document.