Environmental Review Requirements

Construction projects that receive federal funding from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) are required to complete an environmental assessment that is compliant with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This review is a federal requirement associated with the federal capitalization grant that the Department of Public Health (DPH) receives each year from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA allows for states to utilize an alternative environmental review process that is functionally equivalent to NEPA if the state has the authority to do so. The DPH along with other Connecticut State Agencies are required to implement the environmental review requirements of the Connecticut Environmental Policy Act (CEPA) on all construction projects that receive state funding. Since the DWSRF has a combination of both state and federal funds, and CEPA is functionally equivalent to NEPA, the DPH implements the CEPA requirements on most construction projects that receive funding.

The DPH utilizes the statewide generic Environmental Classification Document (ECD) to determine whether a drinking water construction project requires an environmental review under CEPA. Drinking water construction projects that fall under Categories I, II and III of the ECD are required to undergo a CEPA review and are publicly scoped in the Council of Environmental Quality’s Environmental Monitor(EM). Drinking water projects that fall under ECD Category IV are not required to undergo a CEPA review but do need to comply with NEPA. As a result, the DPH performs environmental reviews on ECD Category IV projects for compliance with NEPA requirements. This webpage is provided to make these ECD Category IV environmental reviews available to the public since they are not publicly scoped in the EM. These postings will remain posted for a minimum of 12 months prior to being archived. Postings are listed in chronological order of when the reviews were completed.