WRIA 62 WMP 032305 - Washington State Department of Ecology

March, 2005 -100- 023-1289-003.3040
7.0 STATE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT (SEPA)
This Chapter of the Pend Oreille River Watershed Management Plan provides documentation of
programmatic State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) compliance specific to the Pend Oreille Water
Resource Inventory Area 62 (WRIA 62) Watershed Management Plan (Plan) for adoption of the Plan
by Pend Oreille County.
This Chapter provides the following information:
• A description of the process used to evaluate consistency of the WRIA 62 Plan with the
statewide Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Watershed Planning;
• A summary of the assumptions and judgments used in determining SEPA compliance of
WRIA 62 Plan actions; and,
• Documentation of compliance of each action recommended in the WRIA 62 Plan with
requirements for programmatic, non-project SEPA review.
7.1 WRIA 62 Plan Approach for Programmatic SEPA compliance
The WRIA 62 Planning Unit discussed the following options for SEPA compliance:
• Adoption of the statewide programmatic Watershed Planning EIS and Determination of
Significance (DS). This is an option if the statewide programmatic Watershed Planning EIS
adequately addresses all probable adverse impacts. The County (as lead SEPA agency) will
use all or part of an existing document (the statewide programmatic Watershed Planning EIS)
to meet all or part of the proponent’s responsibilities under SEPA to prepare an EIS or other
environmental document. A Determination of Significance (DS) is a written decision by the
lead SEPA agency that the proposal is likely to have a significant adverse environmental
impact and therefore an EIS is required (WAC 197-11-310 and WAC 197-11-360).
• Adoption, DS, and Addendum. Same as DS option above, with the addition of an
addendum which provides local decision makers with additional local information on
compliance with the statewide programmatic Watershed Planning EIS.
• Adoption, DS, and Supplemental EIS. If the statewide programmatic Watershed Planning
EIS addresses some but not all of the probable significant adverse environmental impacts, a
supplemental EIS is necessary.
• Determination of Non-Significance (DNS). This could be issued if it is determined that
there are no probable significant adverse impacts associated with the recommended actions
contained in the WRIA 62 Plan. In the event that a DNS includes mitigation measures as a
result of the process specified in WAC 197-11-350, a Mitigated Determination of Non-
Significance (MDNS) could be issued.
The qualifications, assumptions, and consistencies analy zed to achieve programmatic SEPA
compliance for the WRIA 62 Plan are included within this Chapter of the Plan (Chapter 7). This
Chapter is considered as the addendum to the statewide programmatic Watershed Planning EIS. The
purpose of this Chapter is to document the logic used in the SEPA gap analysis and the compliance of
each action in the Plan with programmatic SEPA.
WRIA 62 WMP 032305