Frequently Asked Questions

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is the nation's broadest environmental law and our nation's basic environmental charter. NEPA applies to all federal agencies and most of the activities that they fund or manage that affect the environment. It requires federal agencies to consider the environmental, social, and economic impacts of their actions and disclose them in a public decision-making document.

NEPA requires the preparation of environmental documents to ensure that federal agencies accomplish the purpose and intent of the law. Individual federal agencies and the President’s Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) have adopted regulations, policy, and other guidance to ensure that they follow the law to implement NEPA.

Maine’s Sensible Transportation Policy Act (STPA), enacted in 1991, requires that transportation planning decisions, capital investment decisions and project decisions:

• minimize harmful effects of transportation,
• be based on an evaluation of the full range of reasonable alternatives,
• give preference to transportation system management, demand management, and improvements to the existing system and other modes before increasing highway capacity, and
• involve local governmental bodies and the public.

The STPA provides a framework for examining a range of choices. It recognizes there are benefits and costs (financial, energy, and environmental) to transportation. Mobility is no longer treated as an inexhaustible resource but rather as a resource that needs to be both supplied and conserved. STPA identifies policies and management strategies for the analysis of these diverse issues.

Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) regulates the discharge of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States, including wetlands. Activities in waters of the United States regulated under this program consist of filling wetlands for development, water resource projects (such as dams and levees), infrastructure development (such as highways and airports) and mining projects. Section 404 requires a permit before dredged or fill material may be discharged into waters of the United States, unless the activity is exempt from Section 404 regulation (e.g., certain farming and forestry activities).

Under Section 404, no discharge of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States may be permitted if: (1) a practicable alternative exists that is less damaging to the aquatic environment or (2) the nation’s waters would be significantly degraded. To apply for a permit, the applicant must show that the project has, to the extent practicable:

• taken steps to avoid wetland impacts;
• minimized potential impacts on wetlands; and
• provided compensation for remaining unavoidable impacts.

Wetlands subject to Clean Water Act Section 404 are defined as “areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas.”

Stakeholders are federal, state, and local agencies, groups or individuals that have jurisdiction by law, may be affected by, or have interest in, the NEPA decision-making process or outcome. The federal, state, and local agencies have specific roles as lead, cooperating, or participating agencies.

Lead Agencies
The lead agencies are the FHWA and the MaineDOT. They are responsible for leading all aspects of the study. The lead agencies coordinate with the other stakeholders and solicit their comments and participation. The FHWA issues the final record of decision identifying which build alternative (if any) would be carried forward for corridor preservation, final design, and construction, and why.

Cooperating and Participating Agencies
Cooperating agencies are participating agencies, but not all participating agencies are cooperating agencies. Cooperating agencies have jurisdiction by law or jurisdiction with a slightly higher degree of authority, responsibility, and involvement in the environmental review process than other participating agencies. Participating Agencies are those federal, state, tribal, regional, and local government agencies that may have an interest in the study.

Cooperating agencies may, at the request of the lead agencies, develop information and analyses — including writing portions of the EIS — on topics that the agency has special expertise. Cooperating agencies may adopt the lead agencies’ EIS as its own without recirculating it to the public.

The participating agencies’ roles and responsibilities are to:

• Participate in the NEPA process by providing meaningful and early input, especially with regard to the development of the purpose and need statement, reasonable range of alternatives, methodologies, and the level of detail for the analysis of alternatives;
• identify, as early as practicable, any issues of concern regarding the study’s potential environmental or socioeconomic impacts;
• provide meaningful and timely input on unresolved issues;
• participate in the scoping process; and
• timely review and submission of substantive comments on the pre-draft or pre-final environmental documents.

A Public Advisory Committee or PAC is a diverse group comprised of local and regional officials, business owners, and citizens that volunteer their time to stay involved in the study through regular meetings with the MaineDOT and FHWA. MaineDOT uses a PAC as one way of learning about local issues and features and communicating with the public.

The PAC’s role is one of advisor. The PAC provides the lead agencies with insight into a broad range on local issues and concerns, history and information on features in the area for consideration and use in performing the study. The PAC also takes information from the lead agencies to local agencies and the public as one way of keeping them informed of progress throughout the study.

NEPA requires federal agencies to prepare environmental impact statements (EISs) for major federal actions that significantly affect the quality of the human environment. An EIS is a full disclosure document that details the process through which a transportation project is developed, includes consideration of a range of reasonable alternatives, analyzes the potential impacts resulting from the alternatives, and demonstrates compliance with other applicable environmental laws and executive orders.

Scoping is the process of determining the scope of the study by consulting with stakeholders — federal agencies, state agencies, local municipalities, and the public. Scoping consists of the exchange of information and concerns to identify issues and resources of concern to the community so that those concerns can be evaluated during the preliminary engineering and environmental analysis.

The MaineDOT and the FHWA, as joint lead agencies, with input from the public and the federal and state regulatory and resource agencies, will decide what action to take in accordance with NEPA, the STPA, and the CWA. The NEPA process is intended to help public officials make decisions based on an understanding of the environmental consequences and to take actions that protect, restore, and enhance the environment (40 CFR part 1500.1).

The alternatives would require engineering, the acquisition of property, and construction activities, and, with the exception of the No-build Alternative, would also require utility relocations and environmental mitigation. The No-build Alternative, by its very nature, involves the least amount of activity and serves as the basis for comparing the build alternatives.

The conceptual design of the build alternatives includes an estimation of land that would need to be acquired and used as right-of-way for the two-lane roadway. In general, the proposed right-of-way width for the build alternatives averages approximately 250 feet. The limits of the proposed right-of-way are not uniform and are irregular because they are a function of topography, earth-moving activities (i.e., cutting and filling), slopes, existing property boundaries, the viability of remaining portions of properties acquired, and continued access to individual properties. The amount of land to be acquired for the construction and operation of build alternatives is minimized, wherever possible.

As part of the conceptual design of the build alternatives, a preliminary assessment will be performed to provide a general understanding of the existing property ownership and extent of potential land to be acquired and used for right-of-way to construct and maintain the build alternatives.

If a build alternative is selected for construction, the MaineDOT would work with the towns to develop a plan to protect the corridor of the selected alternative, including its intersections and approaches, from further development.

Once the MaineDOT has a corridor preservation system in place to protect the selected corridor, it would work with regional interests to develop support for a funding plan. In recent years, many states have found that state highway funds, bonding, and federal core apportionments are needed to maintain the system as it exists, with little in additional funds for new capacity projects. Therefore, the MaineDOT would work with the governor, region, and state and federal legislators to devise funding strategies for the full property acquisition and ultimately construction of the selected build alternative.

If the No-build Alternative is selected, the MaineDOT would continue to work with local and regional authorities to maintain (to the extent possible) the safety and efficiency of roads.

Federal and federally funded actions that require acquisition of private property must comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 USC § 2000d); the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970, as amended (49 USC §§ 4601 et seq.); and the regulations for implementing the act contained in 49 CFR part 24. These legislative controls protect owners from unfair and inequitable acquisition of property. Property owners have the right to just compensation for their property and the right to be present during an appraisal. The MaineDOT would offer just compensation in writing for the property or portion of property acquired for the project. When an agreement is reached and the necessary paperwork completed, the MaineDOT would pay the property owner for the property or portion of property acquired. The MaineDOT would also pay incidental expenses such as recording fees and transfer taxes and other similar expenses necessary for the transaction.

The MaineDOT would assist the property owner and tenants on the property (if applicable) to relocate. The MaineDOT would provide at least 90 days’ notice before the people using the property would be required to move. The MaineDOT would provide a relocation counselor to interview the property owner to determine the property owner’s needs and estimate the time needed to move to a new location. The MaineDOT would reimburse moving costs and some additional expenses.