TagCEQ(19)

This Congressional Research Service report explains how President Trump's 2025 executive orders revoked earlier Clinton and Biden administration environmental justice policies and directed federal agencies, including the EPA, to close environmental justice offices and end related programs. The report outlines which specific EPA programs and activities may be affected, such as grant programs, screening tools, and interagency councils. It also notes that while the executive orders change agency priorities, they do not override existing federal pollution control laws that Congress has established.

This section of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Environmental Assessment examines cumulative impacts from past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future development projects at and around SEA airport, covering the period from 2017 through 2032. It reviews actions by the Port of Seattle and surrounding cities and agencies — including hotel construction, terminal expansions, and flight procedure changes — to assess how their combined environmental effects, such as noise, emissions, and land use changes, may affect nearby communities. Projects beyond 2032 or those in the long-term vision phase are excluded from detailed analysis due to insufficient specificity.

In May 2024, the Council on Environmental Quality published major updates to the rules governing how federal agencies must review environmental impacts of projects, affecting everything from public participation to project timelines. The changes place new emphasis on environmental justice, requiring agencies to meaningfully engage communities facing disproportionate environmental burdens, and remove previous rules that limited who could challenge agency decisions in court. While some updates are designed to speed up the review process, others may add new requirements for agencies and project sponsors seeking federal permits or funding.

FAA Order 1050.1F, effective July 16, 2015, establishes the Federal Aviation Administration's policies and procedures for complying with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), covering actions such as grants, construction, rulemaking, and NextGen airspace improvements. The order outlines when environmental reviews, assessments, or full impact statements are required, and defines responsibilities for the FAA, applicants, and contractors. It is relevant to noise and environmental impact considerations at airports like Sea-Tac, as it governs how the FAA evaluates and documents the environmental effects of aviation-related actions.

This 2005 memo from the White House Council on Environmental Quality instructs federal agencies on how to handle past actions when analyzing cumulative environmental impacts under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Agencies are not required to exhaustively catalog every past action, but must describe their current combined effects when those effects are relevant to a proposed action's foreseeable environmental impacts. The guidance emphasizes using the scoping process to focus analysis on truly significant cumulative effects rather than accumulating unnecessary background data.

Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the U.S. Department of the Army and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) articulating policy and procedures for determining type and level of mitigation required under Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 404(b)(1) Guidelines. AR037425. Covers three mitigation types: avoidance, minimization, and compensatory mitigation; establishes no net loss of wetlands goal;

Executive Order 13045, signed by President Clinton in April 1997, directs federal agencies to identify and address environmental health and safety risks that disproportionately affect children, recognizing that children are more vulnerable due to their developing bodies and behaviors. The order establishes a Task Force co-chaired by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the EPA Administrator to coordinate federal research and recommend protective strategies. It also requires agencies to evaluate the effects of significant regulations on children's health and safety before those rules take effect.

A handbook published by the Council on Environmental Quality providing guidance on analyzing cumulative effects under NEPA. The document covers scoping, describing affected environments, determining environmental consequences, and addressing cumulative impacts in environmental assessments.

Published in June 1980 by the Federal Interagency Committee on Urban Noise, this document provides guidelines for incorporating noise considerations into land use planning and control decisions. It was produced jointly by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Housing and Urban Development. The guidelines are intended to help planners and policymakers manage the impact of noise—such as that generated by airports like Sea-Tac—on surrounding communities through zoning and land use strategies.