UC CEQA Handbook: 2.6 - Relationship to Other Environmental Laws and Regulations

Some projects require compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) as well as with CEQA. Generally, local or State projects that utilize federal funds, or require the approval of a federal agency, require compliance with both NEPA and CEQA. CEQA advises use of the Finding of No Significant Effect (FONSI) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) prepared pursuant to NEPA in place of an Initial Study or Environmental Impact Report, particularly if the process of preparing the federal document has already commenced (CEQA Statutes Section 21083.7). For projects requiring NEPA and CEQA compliance, the campus may also prepare a combined Negative Declaration-Finding of No Significant Impact or an EIR/EIS, depending on the level of potential environmental impact. Since CEQA and NEPA generally apply differing standards of significance, an EIR/FONSI combination may also be appropriate. In the event that a project requires a joint CEQA/NEPA document, the Lead Agency may waive the time limits outlined by CEQA if it finds that additional time is necessary to prepare the combined document and the time required to prepare the combined document would be shorter than that required to produce each document separately.

When preparing joint NEPA and CEQA documents, the campus and any federal agency involved should:

Convene as early as possible in the planning process to agree to prepare a joint document before either of the agencies begins a separate document.

Ensure that all procedures for complying with both NEPA and CEQA are incorporated into the process (see Table 2.5.1), and that the joint document includes all of the contents required by both NEPA and CEQA (see Table 3 2.5.2).

NEPA generally requires that any cost/benefit analysis prepared for the project be incorporated into or attached to the EIS. Incorporation of cost/benefit information is optional under CEQA unless it constitutes the basis for rejecting an environmentally superior alternative.

NEPA requires that the project and each of the alternatives be analyzed equally and compared. Under CEQA, the analysis of significant effects of alternatives can be evaluated in less detail than the effects of the proposed project; however, each environmental issue should still be addressed for each alternative to allow for comparison of impacts with the proposed project.

CEQA requires agencies to implement feasible mitigation measures. CEQA also requires the preparation of a Mitigation Monitoring or Reporting Program (CEQA Statutes Section 21081.6).

The standards of significance under NEPA generally are less sensitive than under CEQA.

It is generally the case that commitment to a NEPA process involving an EIS takes a longer time period than the CEQA process.

TABLE 3: CONTENTS OF EIRs AND EISs
Component	CEQA (EIR)	NEPA (EIS)
Cover Sheet		X
Summary	X	X
Table of Contents	X	X
Purpose of and Need for Action	X	X
Project Description	X	X
Alternatives Description	X	X
Environmental Setting (EIR) or Affected Environment (EIS)	X	X
Mitigation Measures	X	X
Unavoidable Adverse Impacts	X	X
Relationship Between Local Short-Term Uses of the Environment and the Maintenance and Enhancement of Long-Term Productivity		X
Irreversible or Irretrievable Commitments of Resources	X	X
Economic and Social Effects		X
Growth-Inducing Impacts	X
Cumulative Impacts	X	X
List of Preparers	X	X
Organizations and Persons Consulted	X
Responses to Comments on DEIR and DEIS	X	X
List of Commentors	X
SOURCE: EIP Associates