§6.507 Partitioning the environmental review process.

(a) Purpose. Under certain circumstances the building of a component/portion of a wastewater treatment system may be justified in advance of completing all NEPA requirements for the remainder of the system(s). When there are overriding considerations of cost or impaired program effectiveness, the responsible official may award a construction grant, or approve procurement by other than EPA funds, for a discrete component of a complete wastewater treatment system(s). The process of partitioning the environmental review for the discrete component shall comply with the criteria and procedures described in paragraph (b) of this section. In addition, all reasonable alternatives for the overall wastewater treatment works system(s) of which the component is a part shall have been previously identified, and each part of the environmental review for the remainder of the overall facilities system(s) in the planning area in accordance with §6.502(b)(3) shall comply with all requirements under §6.506.

(b) Criteria for partitioning. (1) Projects may be partitioned under the following circumstances:

(i) To overcome impaired program effectiveness, the project component, in addition to meeting the criteria listed in paragraph (b)(2) of this section, must immediately remedy a severe public health, water quality or other environmental problem; or

(ii) To significantly reduce direct costs on EPA projects, or other related public works projects, the project component (such as major pieces of equipment, portions of conveyances or small structures) in addition to meeting the criteria listed in paragraph (b)(2) of this section, must achieve a cost savings to the Federal Government and/or to the grantee's or potential grantee's overall costs incurred in procuring the wastewater treatment component(s) and/or the installation of other related public works projects funded in coordination with other Federal, State, tribal or local agencies.

(2) The project component also must:

(i) Not foreclose any reasonable alternatives identified for the overall wastewater treatment works system(s);

(ii) Not cause significant adverse direct or indirect environmental impacts including those which cannot be acceptably mitigated without completing the entire wastewater treatment system of which the component is a part; and

(iii) Not be highly controversial.

(c) Requests for partitioning. The applicant's or State's request for partitioning must contain the following:

(1) A description of the discrete component proposed for construction before completing the environmental review of the entire facilities plan;

(2) How the component meets the above criteria;

(3) The environmental information required by §6.506 of this subpart for the component; and

(4) Any preliminary information that may be important to EPA in an EIS determination for the entire facilities plan (§6.509).

(d) Approval of requests for partitioning. The responsible official shall:

(1) Review the request for partitioning against all requirements of this subpart;

(2) If approvable, prepare and issue a FNSI in accordance with §6.508;

(3) Include a grant condition prohibiting the building of additional or different components of the entire facilities system(s) in the planning area as described in §6.502(b)(3)(i).

[50 FR 26317, June 25, 1985, as amended at 51 FR 32612, Sept. 12, 1986]