EIS Filings

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for receiving and reviewing environmental impact statements (EISs) prepared by the Federal agencies. EPA's NEPA website provides resources on the NEPA process, EPA's role, EIS filing guidance, geographic contacts and information, and environmental justice.

EPA publishes a weekly notice of availability in the Federal Register that lists each draft or final EIS received ("filed") during the previous week. Publication of this notice starts the official counting of a required time period, generally a minimum 45-day public comment period for a draft EIS and 30-day "wait period" before making a decision after issuing a final EIS. (See EISs with open comment periods.)

EPA's searchable EIS Database offers:

• Information on all EISs filed since 1987
• EPA comment letters on EISs since 2001
• PDF files of most EISs filed since October 2012

EISs issued earlier than October 2012 may be located through a general search or by searching:

• Federal agency websites.
• State and local websites: Several states and localities - including California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York City, and Washington - maintain a collection of state and local environmental impact assessment documents, which may include NEPA documents.
• Electronic library platforms: The Northwestern University Transportation Library, for example, has a collection of most EISs issued since 1970. Northwestern partnered with Google and HathiTrust to digitize and provide online access to some of the EISs in their collection.