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ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
  

The South Coast Rail project must go through an in-depth analysis to evaluate the impact of the project on the natural environment and historic resources in order to obtain the permits needed to build the project. There are two processes – one at the state level called the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) and one at the federal level called the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Restoring rail service to the South Coast region has been extensively studied for almost 20 years. In 2002, a state-level environmental review recommended one particular route. However, the lead federal agency regulating the project, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was not part of that review process. To obtain a Clean Water Act permit under federal law, MassDOT needs to run the project through the Corps’ methodology, which required looking at the alternatives again. The 2002 data is out-of-date now, so MassDOT consolidated this federal review with an updated state review. The goal of this joint review is to identify the route and type of transportation (rail, bus, etc.) that results in the least harm to the environment while still serving enough people to make the project worthwhile.

The project has combined the state and federal review into a joint review. Phase 1 is complete and Phase 2 is ongoing:

  • Phase 1. The first phase of a joint federal-state process convened all the state and federal environmental agencies that have a say in the project’s design. MassDOT asked the agencies and the public to suggest different alternatives for building the project and ways to evaluate the options against one another. Sixty-five alternatives were proposed along with almost 40 evaluation criteria. This phase was completed in April 2008, and a smaller set of alternatives was advanced to the second phase of review for rigorous study.

  • Phase 2. The state and federal documents that kicked off this second phase, the formal review process, were the Environmental Notification Form/ENF and the federal Notice of Intent/NOI. These documents were filed in November 2008. The Commonwealth issued a scope of work including alternatives to be studied in April 2009. The project team analyzed these alternatives in detail and provided environmental regulators with 5,000 pages of technical data on the impacts of the project, how the service will operate, what the travel time will be, and where the stations will be located.

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prepared the federal Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) based on this data. The state version of this document, the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR), was combined with the DEIS to make public review easier. The DEIS/DEIR was released for public review in late March, 2011. There were two public hearings in the region and 150 written comments were received. The MA Secretary of Environmental Affairs approved the report on June 30, 2011 and outlined information required in the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR). The MEPA Certificate directed MassDOT to study only the Stoughton alternative in the FEIR, while the Army Corps has not yet narrowed the range of alternatives.

    MassDOT is in the process of completing about a dozen technical memoranda and reports on topics that will be covered in the final environmental documents. These reports focus on updating the operations plan; updating station platform preliminary designs; and technical reports on open space, noise and vibration mitigation, construction staging, water quality, wetland impacts, proposed trestles, at-grade crossings, impacts to historic and archaeological resources, and an expanded analysis of the Whittenton alternative (to the Stoughton route) and the Rapid Bus alternative.

    MassDOT has submitted the majority of these draft memos to the Army Corps of Engineers and is awaiting comments. Work will be complete on the outstanding reports as soon as possible. By mid to late fall, MassDOT anticipates finishing work on all of its submittals. The next step will be for the Army Corps to request any final information and to prepare the Final Environmental Impact Statement/Report (FEIS/FEIR). The Army Corps has indicated it will take several months to prepare the FEIS/FEIR; MassDOT expects final public review of the document will take place in spring 2013. Following the public review, the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs is expected to issue a final certificate, completing the MEPA process, and the Corps of Engineers is expected to issue a Record of Decision to complete the NEPA process.

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