Instructions for Submission of External Environmental Review Documents for Department of the Interior Review

The Director of the Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance (OEPC) is responsible for receiving and commenting on other Federal agencies environmental documents per Departmental policy.  The staff of the OEPC is located at headquarters and in eight regional offices. Coordination of an environmental document review is either conducted by OEPC at the headquarters level or by DOI bureaus and offices at the field level depending on the type of document. The sections below outline who and how to contact DOI for review of an environmental document.

When to contact OEPC Headquarters:
OEPC headquarters office coordinates reviews across the DOI and ensures thoroughness and timeliness of DOI comments on the following types of documents:

• draft and final environmental impact statements;
• Section 4(f) evaluations;
• proposals of national interest affecting DOI’s natural resources, environmental interests, and pollution control activities; and
• environmental review documents for applications, permits, licenses, etc., for proposed actions under various Federal authorities, such as for proposed hydroelectric project licensing under the Federal Power Act and Chief’s Reports for feasibility studies by the Army Corps of Engineers under the Water Resources Development Acts.

The OEPC Headquarters staff are available to answer questions about DOI reviews. Please direct questions to environmental_review@ios.doi.gov.

How to submit your environmental document to OEPC Headquarters for DOI review: 

To initiate DOI review, the DOI either receives notification of the environmental document issuance through a Federal Register notice or a separate notification from the Federal agency legally responsible for the environmental document. For DOI review of relevant notices issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the FERC eLibrary is monitored daily by environmental review staff.  For notification of environmental documents that are not accompanied by a Federal Register notice, Federal agencies should send all correspondence to DOI via email to environmental_review@ios.doi.gov. The OEPC requests that the document for review is either attached or linked to in the email. If possible, these documents should be accessible without needing usernames or passwords. If a password is required, we request that the password not expire prior to the end of the comment period.

When to contact DOI bureaus directly: 

The type of documents to send directly to DOI bureaus or offices at the field level include:

• early coordination and scoping information;
• environmental assessments;
• findings of no significant impact;
• preliminary or working drafts of environmental impact statements including administrative drafts of an environmental impact statement; and
• similar material of a regional nature.

Requests for Federal agency coordination and consultation in project planning should be directed to the affected DOI bureau(s). It is not necessary to send copies of early coordination documents to the OEPC. The Council on Environmental Quality maintains an Agency Jurisdiction and Special Expertise page on their website, which includes DOI bureaus having jurisdiction by law or special expertise on environmental quality issues. This page should be used to determine the appropriate DOI Bureau to contact for coordination during early planning, NEPA scoping, and other preliminary activities. It is recommended that you consult bureau websites for the current bureau contacts for your state or region.

Please note that OEPC’s Regional Environmental Officers (REOs) serve as representatives of OEPC and can be contacted if there are questions about these procedures at the field level. An REO list is available and maintained on our website.

The OEPC requests that you make a wide distribution of this information throughout your organization. Such a distribution will assist us in better meeting our obligations under law and in planning projects that will be mutually beneficial.