The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) 1970 Summary – The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was the first laws, that have been written for protecting the
environment, it establishes the national framework and the act signed as a law on Jan 1, 1970. The federal agencies are required to assess, the environmental conditions that are affecting the environment, before making the decisions or taking the actions the effects are noticed. However, NEPA is the step towards the development and all federal agencies, are prepared for the environmental assessments (Epa.gov, 2016).
NEPA also refers to, as “Magna Carta”, the federal court and the congresses are free from the NEPA applications. The national policies encourage the productive and enjoyable harmony that is the man and, the environment, however, the men are protected in the environment so that the there are no health and other damages. The steps are taken to prevent the people; it law is for the welfare of the man. It is important for the man to have the understanding of the ecological system; there are the national policies and goals that ensure or promote the law, the environmental factors are studied and then decisions are taken by the federal government agencies.
In the NEPA process, the evaluation is done of the federal project and the actions are taken, the agencies prepare a proposal, in which the action needed to taken are written, there are the three levels on which the analysis is done that are categorical exclusion, a finding of a significant impact and an environmental assessment. It is needed to undertake all the process to get safe from the future environmental issues, through constructing or focusing on the land management objectives, the agencies can evaluate the social and economic effect, which can be beneficial in the future (Luther, 2010).
Engineers are working for the protection of the human population by applying the engineering principles of protection. The role of engineers, in the NEPA process, is to improve the quality of the environment, they are concerned about the air and the clean water, and they do the solid waste management. Environmental impacts and mitigation, water supply and water waste treatment, air pollution management etc. all process are to the engineers, they need to ensure the requirements.
References:
- Epa.gov. (2016, May 26). National Environmental Policy Act. Retrieved October 13, 2016, from https://www.epa.gov/nepa
- Luther, L. (2010). Implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for Disaster Response, Recovery, and Mitigation Projec. DIANE Publishing.