Navigating Businesses through CEQA and NEPA

The environmental attorneys at Bick Law have experience navigating clients through the environmental impact review requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and its federal counterpart, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). We work directly with businesses to develop compliance strategies that minimize risks and challenges related to project approvals under CEQA and NEPA. Our goal is to ensure that our clients’ activities are consistent with these environmental statutes and other state and federal regulatory requirements so that their projects can move forward in a timely and cost-effective manner. When CEQA and NEPA disputes arise, our attorneys aggressively litigate these matters before state and federal courts.

CEQA and NEPA Requirements

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) are important and significant environmental laws designed to protect the environment and our natural resources. These laws require government agencies at the national, state and local levels to conduct an environmental assessment of a proposed project’s impact before the project receives approval. Environmental assessments under CEQA and NEPA are designed to inform government decision makers and the public about the potential significant environmental impacts of a proposed project and to identify ways to prevent and mitigate possible damages to the environment.

Our environmental attorneys review Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs) and Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) and work with our clients to properly respond to the reviewing agency’s concerns and questions. We undertake a thorough analysis of EIRs and EISs to ensure that the agency’s analysis of a proposed project’s environmental effects and mitigation approaches are complete and accurate. When issues arise in connection with CEQA and NEPA environmental assessments, a California CEQA Attorney at our firm takes quick action to vigorously protect our clients’ rights in court. The window for filing a legal action in these types of matters is limited. For example, CEQA challenges are subject to strict filing deadlines, generally within thirty days of the filing of the Notice of Determination. Because of these strict filing limitations, our attorneys carefully monitor the process and advise our clients of important deadlines to ensure that their rights to pursue an action are fully preserved.

Our Services

Our firm has extensive experience advising clients on all aspects of both CEQA and NEPA. This includes both advising public entities that are responsible for preparing environmental reviews and advising private entities undertaking projects that implicate these statutes’ environmental review requirements. This includes, but is by no means limited to, projects such as:

• Commercial, Industrial, and Warehouse Facilities
• Infrastructure Projects (i.e., Water, Oil and Gas, and Renewable Energy)
• Natural Resources development (e.g., mineral development, energy projects)
• Retail and Hospitality Properties
• Special use permits for federal or state public lands
• Residential and Mixed-Use Properties
• Environmental remediation

These projects, among many others, often require environmental reviews under both CEQA and NEPA—and project proponents will need to prioritize those reviews in order to avoid unnecessary (and potentially costly) litigation roadblocks in the future. At Bick Law, we take a proactive approach to helping our clients understand and navigate the environmental review process, and we have extensive experience working with local, state, and federal authorities on behalf of our clients to prepare NEPA/CEQA documents and resolve issues before they stand in the way of progress.

CEQA and NEPA Compliance

Much of our work in this area involves assisting clients steward their projects through the CEQA and NEPA administrative process. Under both of these statutes, project proponents are often required to prepare extensive environmental resource studies and modify their proposals to mitigate adverse environmental impacts. Our firm is experienced in representing clients during:

• Initial Studies
• Resource studies and reports
• Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs)
• Environmental Impact Statements (EISs)
• Environmental Assessments/Findings of No Significant Impact (EA/FONSIs)
• Categorical Exclusion (CatEx) review
• Notices of Exemption
• Negative Declarations

Whether you own or manage a public or private company or you are responsible for overseeing a local authority’s compliance with NEPA or CEQA, we can help you move forward with confidence. We have decades of experience in this area, and we can use our experience to help you understand your organization’s statutory obligations, meet these obligations, and prepare thorough environmental reviews that fulfill the statutory mandates of NEPA and CEQA.

CEQA and NEPA Challenges and Litigation

We also provide representation for challenges and litigation under CEQA and NEPA. Companies may need to intervene in challenges to government agencies’ decisions under these statutes. After all, no one knows your project better than you. And companies may also need to challenge a state or federal agency’s analysis under CEQA or NEPA.

If your project is held up by CEQA or NEPA litigation, our attorneys can quickly assess the circumstances and help you make an informed decision about how best to proceed. And while we have a strong record of helping our clients secure necessary approvals outside of the formal challenge process—and prefer to do so where possible—we are also well equipped to litigate CEQA and NEPA matters on behalf of our clients when necessary.

Related Environmental Compliance Concerns

Companies facing challenges under CEQA or NEPA often also face challenges under other state and federal environmental laws, whether they realize it or not. In addition to providing representation for compliance and litigation matters involving CEQA and NEPA, we provide full-service legal representation for other state and federal compliance matters as well. Some examples of other environmental statutes that may apply in this scenario include:

• Clean Air Act
• Clean Water Act
• Endangered Species Act
• Federal land management statutes (e.g., FLPMA, NFMA, MUSYA)
• Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)
• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
• State analogs to these statutes

Again, these are just examples. Under these and other statutes, multiple local, state, and federal agencies can have oversight of various types of projects—and they can all seek to assert their influence at various stages of the process. These include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, California Department of Toxic Substances Control, California Natural Resources Agency, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and State Water Resources Control Board, among others. Thus, not only must companies take a comprehensive approach to CEQA and NEPA compliance, but they must take a comprehensive approach to broader environmental compliance as well.

At Bick Law, we rely on decades of experience to help our clients identify, address, and overcome all pertinent environmental compliance obligations and risks. If you have questions or concerns about CEQA compliance, NEPA compliance, or any other aspect of environmental compliance, we invite you to contact us for more information.

Bick Law understands the tremendous challenges businesses face when attempting to address the myriad of environmental laws and regulations impacting their development projects and business operations. Our lawyers work with clients to develop compliance strategies aimed at avoiding challenges under NEPA and CEQA. We assist clients in resolving the full range of issues that may arise throughout the CEQA and NEPA project assessment approval process.