Timely Implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act Process Aids Project Success

摘要

Implementation of the US National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process can have a dramatic effect on a project's schedule and budget. Often, the NEPA process is not triggered early enough. Failure to properly plan for the NEPA process and to implement the requirements of the policy early in the project or program lifecycle results in schedule and cost impacts negatively affecting the baseline. There is currently no required timeframe for completing NEPA documentation. Since the inception of NEPA, the timeline for implementing has increased from just over two years to something in excess of five years. An organization implementing NEPA must have a collaborative effort where necessary in order to maintain an efficient process. In addition, communicating and involving the interested public about a proposed action is a major component of the NEPA process. As it is, the public maintains a high degree of suspicion regarding agencies' willingness to apply the NEPA process in the spirit that its founders intended. Study has shown that the early involvement of interested parties will increase a project's chances of staying on track in terms of schedule and budget. Programmatic efforts, such as cost and performance metric tracking of the NEPA process, can be especially beneficial to US federal agencies or large organizations with multiple, concurrent large-scale projects. It remains the goal of NEPA to promote excellent decision-making when evaluating projects that have the potential to significantly affect the environment. In order for NEPA to work as it was designed and provide the most benefit to a project or program, it is imperative to start the NEPA process early.