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RESEARCH ARTICLE: Preparation Times for Final Environmental Impact Statements Made Available from 2007 through 2010

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2013

Piet deWitt  and
Carole A. deWitt
Piet deWitt*
Affiliation:
Adjunct Instructor, Political Science and Environmental Studies, Salisbury University, Salisbury, Maryland
Carole A. deWitt*
Affiliation:
independent consultant
*
Piet deWitt, 7325 Puncheon Landing Road, Pocomoke City, MD 21851; (phone) 410-957-4325; (e-mail) [email protected]
Carole A. deWitt, 7325 Puncheon Landing Road, Pocomoke City, MD 21851; (phone) 410-957-4325
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Abstract

Annual average environmental impact statement (EIS)-preparation times for all EIS-preparing entities combined were highly variable after 2006 and peaked in 2008 at 1,522 days (4.2 years). The annual average EIS-preparation time for all entities increased from 2007 through 2010 at an average rate of +19.9 days/year. The trend of increasing preparation times measured from 1998 was maintained through 2010, but the average rate of increase, +26.7 days/year, was slightly less than that measured from 1998 through 2006. Annual average EIS-preparation times for the three most prolific EIS producers—US Forest Service, Federal Highway Administration, and US Army Corps of Engineers—generally decreased after 2006. In contrast, the annual average EIS-preparation time for all other EIS-preparing entities combined increased after 2006 at an average rate of +76.2 days/year, and these entities produced 55% of all final EISs after 2006. Preparation times for EISs on general resource management plans required of the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management had significant effects on various annual averages.

Environmental Practice 15:123–132 (2013)

Type
Features
Information
Environmental Practice , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 123 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © National Association of Environmental Professionals 2013 

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