9629

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9629
• Author: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Title: Selected NEPA Documents.
• USFW Year: 1993.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

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welfare or environmental quality.
1508.25 Scope.
Scope consists of the range of actions, alternatives, and impacts to be considered in an
environmental impact statement. The scope of an individual statement may depend on its
relationships to other statements (SS 1502.20 and 1508.28). To determine the scope of
environmental impact statements, agencies shall consider 3 types of actions, 3 types of
alternatives, and 3 types of impacts. They include:
(a) Actions (other than unconnected single actions) which may be:
(1) Connected actions, which means that they are closely related and therefore should be
discussed in the same impact statement. Actions are connected if they:
(i) Automatically trigger other actions which may require environmental impact
statements.
(ii) Cannot or will not proceed unless other actions are taken previously or
simultaneously.
(iii) Are interdependent parts of a larger action and depend on the larger action for
their justification.
(2) Cumulative actions, which when viewed with other proposed actions have
cumulatively significant impacts and should. therefore be discussed in the same impact state-
ment.
(3) Similar actions, which when viewed with other reasonably foreseeable or proposed
agency actions, have similarities that provide a basis for evaluating their environmental
consequences together, such as common timing or geography. An agency may wish to
analyze these actions in the same impact statement. It should do so when the best way to
assess adequately the combined impacts of similar actions or reasonable alternatives to such
actions is to treat them in a single impact statement.
(b) Alternatives, which include: (1) No action alternative. (2) Other reasonable courses of
actions. (3) Mitigation measures (not in the proposed action).
(c) Impacts, which may be: (1) Direct. (2) Indirect. (3) Cumulative.
1508.26 Special expertise.
"Special expertise" means statutory responsibility, agency mission, or related program
experience.
1508.27 Significantly.
"Significantly" as used in NEPA requires considerations of both context and intensity:
(a) Context. This means that the significance of an action must be analyzed in several
contexts such as society as a whole (human, national), the affected region, the affected
interests, and the locality. Significance varies with the setting of the proposed action. For
instance, in the case of asite-specific action, significance would usually depend upon the
effects in the locale rather than in the world a's a whole. Both short and long-term effects
are relevant.