Code of Federal Regulations Title 18. Conservation of Power and Water Resources § 18.1318.101 NEPA determination

(a) NEPA applies to proposed actions with potential impacts on the human environment that would result in a non-trivial change to the environmental status quo.

(b) At the earliest possible time, the TVA entity proposing an action shall consult with the staff responsible for NEPA compliance and TVA legal counsel, as appropriate, to determine whether the action requires an environmental review under NEPA and, if so, the level of environmental review.

(c) The level of review will be in one of the following categories:  Categorical Exclusions, Environmental Assessments, and Environmental Impact Statements.

(d) The NEPA compliance staff shall determine whether the action is already covered under an existing NEPA review, including a programmatic or generic review. Before such an action proceeds, the NEPA compliance staff shall evaluate and adequately document whether the new action is essentially similar to the previously analyzed action, the alternatives previously analyzed are adequate for the new action, there are significant new circumstances or information relevant to environmental concerns that would substantially change the analysis in the existing NEPA review, and there are effects that would result from the new action that were not addressed in the previous analysis

(e) NEPA and its implementing regulations (both CEQ's and TVA's) provide an established, well-recognized process for appropriately analyzing environmental issues and involving the public.

(f) TVA may choose to conduct an environmental review when NEPA does not apply.