INTERIM
LAND USE and
NEW ENGLAND'S ENVIRONMENT
UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
REGION I, JOHN F. KENNEDY FEDERAL BUILDING,
GOVERNMENT CENTER, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 02203
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Land Use Trends Above picture taken before Route 128 was constructed around Boston.
Cover shows same area with Route 128 and associated development patterns.
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LAND USE AND NEW ENGLAND'S
ENVIRONMENT
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Region 1
John F. Kennedy Federal Building
Boston, Massachusetts 02203
CONTENTS
Page
LAND USE ISSUES CONFRONTING EPA 3
SUMMARY (With Topic Index} 5
POLICY 6
IMPLEMENTATION 9
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LAND USE ISSUES CONFRONTING EPA
Daily, countless land use decisions are deter-
mining New England's future environmental
heritage, and EPA actions are affecting land use —
whether or not we have a conscious land policy. En-
vironmental quality and land are inseparable.
Land uses determine the location, type and
timing of development that generates pollution;
thus, land use decisions can protect or degrade the
environment. Lack of State and regional land use
policies that adequately consider air, water, solid
waste, noise and other environmental effects has
thwarted rational location and construction of oil
facilities, power plants, highways, and real estate
development. In the absence of deliberate land
policy, land use decisions inevitably continue with
little regard for their impact on growth and the en-
vironment.
Waste treatment plant and sewer construction —
now the Nation's largest public works program —
itself can determine land development — a double-
edged sword. Permits covering air emissions and
water discharges likewise guide development. The
residuals from intensified air, water and solid waste
treatment require carefully located disposal sites.
Our water, air and solid waste clean up can be
self-defeating if it merely stimulates unsound
development that generates another round of
pollution, blocks public access and defaces the
scenic setting. Water and air quality are dependent
upon land use measures for maintenance of nature's
wetlands and greenspace filter systems. Further,
control of nonpoint pollution from urban and rural
runoff requires complementary land management
practices.
To meet Congressionally-mandated standards
and goals, the States and localities must enforce en-
vironmentally-sound land use policies. The Clean
Air Act, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act
(FWPCA) and the Safe Drinking Water Act may
require location policies to control new pollution
sources. Air quality must be maintained through
State Implementation Plans scheduling measures
to control emissions, including "land-use and trans-
portation controls". These plans embrace Air
Quality Maintenance Plans, transportation control
strategies, indirect source regulations, and
significant deterioration regulations. Areawide
waste treatment management plans (Sec. 208 of
FWPCA) must establish a "regulatory program" to
control point and nonpoint sources of pollution ("in-
cluding land use requirements"). Wastewater treat-
ment capacity must meet "needs", which reflect
growth and conservation goals. The Safe Drinking
Water Act requires State permit programs to
protect groundwater supplies. The Noise Control
and Solid Waste Acts relate emission and waste
levels to land use.
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
and the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act (OMB
Circular A-95) require full disclosure and evaluation
of land use impacts of Federal actions (grants, per-
mits, loans, direct projects). Under the Coastal
Zone Management Act, the New England coastal
states are developing coastal zone management
programs that incorporate the requirements of the
Clean Air Act and FWPCA, define "permissible
land and water uses", consider the ''national in-
terest" in siting major facilities, preserve
ecological-recreational values, and establish
priorities among uses. Comprehensive planning
assistance grants (Section 701 of the Housing and
Urban Development Act) require land use plans
that consider environmental factors.
EPA recognizes its responsibility to assure that
its own diverse program decisions are made with
deliberate consideration of their impacts on land
uses and future environmental quality. As an en-
vironmental guardian, EPA must exercise leader-
ship to heighten the awareness of the en-
vironmental implications of the land use decisions
being made daily by the local, State and private in-
terests in whose hands the responsibility for such
decisions resides.
EPA Administrator Russell E. Train has em-
phasized his concern:
"We have become increasingly aware of
the involvement of EPA's programs with
land use patterns and of the relationship of
these programs to each other and to other
Federal, State, and local efforts. This has
obliged us to take a close and continuing
look at our activities and to place them in
proper perspective in the larger context in
which they must be achieved."
Russell E. Train, before the Subcommittee
on Energy and the Environment, U. S.
House of Representatives, March 25,1975.
To fulfill this responsibility, Administrator
Russell E. Train has established an Office of Land
Use Coordination in Washington, and has circulated
for comment a proposed Land Use Policy
Statement for agency-wide guidance. EPA, Region
I, in turn, proposes this Regional Policy Statement
to orchestrate a rational environmental framework
for the continuing local State, Federal and private
land use decisions in New England. It suggests
policies for implementation tailored to New
England's unique environmental assets, traditions,
and aspirations.
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Deliberate recognition of land use as a positive
environmental tool has remained a sensitive, com-
plex issue. "Land use" has so many facets and in-
volves so many public and private interests that it
has, far too often, remained an emotional or elusive
catch phrase.
To join in creative dialogue, first let us view land
use as distribution of man's activities on the land.
Land use policy, then, becomes a deliberate public
judgment and affirmation of how to use land to
meet environmental, social and economic ob-
jectives. It- embraces the formalized location,
relationships and timing of activities on the land,
with proper respect for its resource assets and
liabilities, together with the legal and institutional
arrangements for reaching and carrying out such
decisions. Specific land use tools embrace adopted
plans, acquisition in fee or easement, zoning and
regulation, provision (or withholding) of public
facilities and tax policies.
Localities and the States have the prerogative to
make the day-to-day land use decisions which im-
pact land and the environment in the regional or
national interest. Thus, it is their responsibility to
exercise then* decision-making in a manner to meet
State-Federal environmental standards, and, in ad-
dition, to prevent further degradation of New
England's priceless environmental assets, recog-
nizing social and economic goals.
Hopefully, we all will join together to shape our
land use policies toward New England's common
environmental goals with deliberate forethought
and democratic involvement. Otherwise, land use
decisions involving public as well as private in-
terests will drift by default with more hap-
penstance than foresight.
John A. S. McGlennon,
Regional Administrator
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INTERIM
LAND USE AND NEW ENGLAND'S ENVIRONMENT
SUMMARY
LAND USE ISSUES CONFRONTING EPA (Pages
3-4)
POLICIES (Pages 6 - 9)
General Policies on Roles and Responsibilities
(page 6)
1. Local, State and Federal roles: The States
and localities make the day-to-day land use
decisions; the achievement or protection of
environmental standards must be among the
results of each and every land use decision.
(p.6)
2. EPA environmental leadership: Provide
leadership to increase environmental
awareness in land use decisions. Evaluate
and integrate programs with respect to land
use. (p. 6)
3. State-local environmental leadership: EPA
encourages States and localities to develop
and carry out environmentally-sensitive land
use plans and policies, (p. 6)
4. Interagency coordination: Work with Federal
public works, development, and natural re-
sources agencies, (p. 7)
Specific Policies: EPA, working with the States and
localities, will provide leadership and technical
guidance on environmental objectives to actively
promote the following policies:
1. Guide land use patterns as a conscious State-
local policy to prevent future pollution and to
restore urban quality.
Location, types and timing of development
should consider: (p. 7)
a. Pollution-prevention location policies.
b. Environmentally-sound and energy-saving
land use patterns.
c. Environmental buffers.
d. Restoration of a liveable, quality urban en-
vironment.
2. Assure that regional public facilities sup-
port environmental standards and policies
(e.g., transportation, energy, utilities, solid
waste, water resources), (p. 7)
3. Coordinate EPA wastewater treatment
facilities grants and discharge permits with
State and local land use plans, open space
plans and critical areas protection, (p. 7}
4. Integrate EPA air quality permits and con-
trol/maintenance strategies and State and
local land use and growth patterns, (p. 8)
5. Recognize the interdependence of en-
vironmental standards and related land uses
(e.g., compatible air, water and land quality;
Air Quality Maintenance Planning and
significant deterioration classification).
6. Safeguard the public interest in our in-
vestment in environmental standards
through State-local scheduling of access and
shoreland protection with environmental
clean-up timetables, (p. 8)
7. Preserve environmentally-critical areas
through State, local, and selected Federal ac-
tions (e.g., wetlands, shorelands, flood plains,
aquifers, steep slopes), (p. 8)
8. Maintain prime productive lands through
State, local, and selected Federal actions
(e.g., prime agricultural lands, estuaries and
habitat, (p. 8)
9. Develop long-range site plans for integrated
waste management and for water supply
(e.g., air, water, solids and water supply).
(p. 9)
10. Adopt complementary land management
practices to control nonpomt source pollution
or "indirect sources" (e.g., agricultural,
forestry, pesticide, construction, and urban
runoff; air pollution associated with land or
traffic management), (p. 9)
IMPLEMENTATION (Pages 9 -12)
EPA, for its part, working with the States, re-
gional agencies, and localities, will actively support
environmentally-sensitive land use policies through
steps as follows:
1. Promote active awareness of environmental
standards and implications of land use
decisions (e.g., planning assistance, grants,
permits, impact statements, and public in-
formation), (p. 9)
2. Integrate the several EPA environmental
programs into common State or local land use
policies for pollution prevention (e.g., coor-
dination of water quality, water supply, air
quality and solid waste programs with one
another and with State-regional land use
planning), (p. 9)
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3. Incorporate the environmental standards and
goals into State Coastal Zone Management
(CZM) programs (e.g., workshops, en-
vironmental planning coordination, and re-
views), (p. 9)
4. Offer EPA technical assistance on en-
vironmental constraints in location of major
regional facilities (e.g., oil, power plants,
utilities), (p. 9)
5. Require grant and permit applicants to
document coordination with State-local land
use plans and evaluation of land use and
associated environmental impacts, (p. 10)
6. Evaluate land use changes and associated en-
vironmental impacts in preparing EPA en-
vironmental assessments and impact
statements (E.I.SJ and in reviewing other
agencies'E.I.S. (p. 11)
7. Support A-95 review of the land use and
associated environmental impacts by State
and regional agencies, (p. 11)
8. Urge recreation and land use agencies to
schedule public access and shoreland protec-
tion with water and air clean-up, (p. 11)
9. Plan for multiple use of waste treatment
facilities and rights-of-way. (p. 11)
10. Provide guidance to land use and natural
resource agencies on needs and ways to
preserve environmentally-critical or produc-
tive areas, (p. 11)
11. Work with concerned Federal and State
agencies on "indirect" sources of pollution
(e.g., construction, transportation, agricul-
tural, forestry agencies), (p. 11)
12. Solicit research and demonstration on
relationships between land use patterns and
environmental quality, (p. 12)
POLICY
General Policies on Roles and Responsibilities
1. Local, State, Federal roles: The achievement or
protection of environmental standards must be
among the results of each and every State or local
land use decision. Localities and private landowners
should continue to make the day-to-day land use
decisions within the framework of State enabling
laws, land use policies, and regulations in the public
interest. Jointly with the States, EPA sets and en-
forces the environmental standards that the States,
localities, and private interests must meet, as a
minimum, in their daily land use decisions.
In these "local" decisions, regional, state andeven
national interests must be considered to protect the
broader public interest and future generations.
These include not only preservation of en-
vironmentally-critical or productive areas (wet-
lands, prime agricultural lands) but also the
many seemingly minor land use decisions that
cumulatively jeopardize the very livelihood or well-
being of the entire region. For example, filling in
many small wetland parcels diminishes the total
available wetlands upon which the entire region
depends, and, incrementally, "local" developments
can impair a region's air quality or destroy its
unique qualities.
2. EPA environmental leadership: EPA will exer-
cise leadership in implementing an environmental
strategy for land use decisions throughout the con-
duct of its programs: public information, standards
setting, planning, technical assistance, research,
and demonstration, grants, permits, environmental
impact statements, and enforcement. EPA will
review and coordinate its several programs with
respect to their overall impact on land use; con-
versely, working with State, regional and Federal
land use agencies, it will identify land use con-
siderations common to its several programs.
At a minimum, EPA has the responsibility to work
jointly with the State environmental agencies to
point out environmental constraints to the land use
decision-makers. EPA shall offer technical assis-
tance leadership to help the States and localities
develop and keep current land use plans with full
awareness of environmental constraints, and to in-
sure that land use decisions become sensitive to
their far-reaching environmental consequences.
3. State-local environmental leadership: Several
New England States and a few far-sighted localities
are pioneering with environmentally-sensitive con-
servation and development plans, policies or
regulations to guide land use, public facility in-
vestment, and major private developments. EPA
actively supports and encourages such State and
local efforts, often involving effective conservation
commissions and land trusts.
Notably, Vermont, Maine and Connecticut have
tried varied statewide approaches for considering
environmental constraints in land use decisions:
Vermont's Act 250 established concurrently a
State regional district system for land use planning
and regulation; Maine's Site Selection, Land Use
Regulation, and Shoreland Zoning Acts all require
permits for developments having substantial im-
pact; Connecticut's Plan of Conservation and
Development identifies areas best suited for
development and those best suitable for en-
vironmental protection.
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4. Interagency cooperation: EPA will work closely
with Federal public works and development agen-
cies concerned with evaluating the environmental
consequences of their land use decisions and with
Federal agencies seeking protection for en-
vironmentally-critical or productive lands.
Specific Policies
EPA, working with the States and localities, will
provide leadership and technical guidance to ac-
tively promote the following policies:
1. Assure that land use planners and decision-
makers at all levels of government and the private
sector take environmental considerations futty into
account in shaping the location, types, intensity and
timing of development. Land use policies shall
become a positive tool to prevent future air, water
and noise pollution and solid waste problems.
Location policies should be used systemmatically as
a means to maintain air and water quality stan-
dards, meet load allocations, and achieve non-
degradation objectives.
Pollution abatement and land use policies shall
go hand-in-hand to restore and maintain a liveable
environment and daily amenities for urban dwell-
ers, rich and poor alike.
EPA and the State environmental agencies should
keep the responsible, State, local, and private
decision-makers specifically informed on en-
vironmental standards and objectives and en-
courage community land use decision-makers and
developers to adopt development and conservation
policies to:
a. Locate new sources of pollution (including in-
direct sources} so as to maintain air and water
quality and to minimize noise. States, localities,
and developers have the opportunity to con-
centrate development in areas having suitable
soils and public services and to protect en-
vironmentally-critical areas and areas of high air
and water quality and relative quiet. For exam-
ple, Connecticut's Plan of Conservation and
Development directs development to identified
development modes where waste water treat-
ment is cost-effective and least likely to degrade
high quality waters; Vermont's non-degradation
policy prohibits location of new discharges up-
stream from the highest point of existing
discharge.
b. Promote land use patterns that reduce
pollution levels, conserve energy and enhance
community convenience and amenities. Special
attention should be given to proximity of
residences, schools, work, shopping, recreation
and other daily activities. This will promote
pedestrian and bicycle travel, reducing motor
vehicle trips and associated air pollution, noise,
congestion and fuel consumption. Planned con-
centration of development will make rapid tran-
sit feasible and convenient. Well planned
development will assure that growth will not fur-
ther violate standards once they have been
achieved.
c. Locate and site public and private develop-
ment in patterns that preserve natural water-
courses, ridgeUnes, or vegetative strips as buf-
fers to reduce air and water pollution and noise.
Location and site plans should preserve existing
streams, wetlands, escarpments and other
topographic features as environmental buffers.
This will also provide neighborhood open spaces,
afford visual amenities, increase property
values, and enhance long-range community
values. Inter-connected on a regional scale, such
buffer features will also provide trail and
bikeway systems.
d. Rehabilitate our center cities in such a man-
ner as to bring the benefits of enhanced air and
water quality and reduction in noise and solid
waste nuisances home to the immediate sur-
roundings where most New Engkmders live,
work and play each day.
2. Assure that the location, scale, type and timing
of major regional facilities is conducted with full
knowledge of and supports all environmental stan-
dards, objectives and land use policies (e.g., trans-
portation, energy, utilities, solid waste, water
resources facilities). EPA, working with the States
and other Federal agencies, will support early con-
sideration of potential land use changes and en-
vironmental effects both in exercising en-
vironmental leadership and in planning grants, per-
mits and review of Federally-assisted projects (in-
cluding Coastal Zone Management Program,
NEPA, Section 309 of the Clean Air Act, and A-95).
3. Coordinate EPA grants for wastewater treat-
ment facilities and discharge permits with State
and local land use plans, air quality maintenance
plans, open space plans and protection of en-
vironmentally-critical areas. EPA requires that the
location, siting, design capacity and timing of
facilities be consistent with such plans, unless ex-
ceptional health or environmental considerations
can be shown to be overriding. EPA, for its part,
will make sure that wastewater facilities that have
the potential for stimulating growth are consistent
with Air Quality Maintenance Plans or significant
deterioration regulations. In administering con-
struction grants and permits, EPA urges the State
environmental agencies to work with planning
agencies, localities, consultants and citizens on
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procedures for specific coordination of treatment
facilities and air and water permits with areawide
growth and conservation goals, land use plans, and
capital improvement programs. EPA requires
specific documentation of coordination with land
use plans and the potential for secondary land
development, premature urbanization of un-
developed areas, and associated environmental im-
pacts. Project plans must locate ultimate disposal
sites.
4. Integrate EPA air quality new source per-
formance review and air quality maintenance
strategies and State and local land use and growth
policies. EPA requires New Source Performance
Standards, Transportation Control Plans, Air
Quality Maintenance Plans, Indirect Source
Review, and Significant Deterioration policies all be
coordinated with land use and growth policies to
assure that deliberations on future growth fully
consider impacts on air quality levels and stan-
dards. EPA requires that the States identify areas
which have the potential for exceeding the stan-
dards over the next ten years and develop plans to
protect standards. Land use policies will be
necessary in some areas to do this. EPA facilities
grants and discharge permits shall, in turn, support
such policies.
5. Develop environmental standards and en-
forcement as a positive package to maintain the
overall environmental quality essential for par-
ticular land uses. Desired land uses, such as New
England's recreational assets of pristine lakes,
coastline and mountain backdrop require a con-
tinuing commitment to high standards for all facets
of the environment: air, waters, solitude, scenic set-
ting and land use in their totality.
Standards for air and water and guidelines for
noise and solid waste, in turn, influence associated
land uses. High ambient air quality, water and noise
standards require careful evaluation of potentially
degrading sources (including indirect sources), af-
fecting their location, scale and design.
Ideally, since the several environmental stan-
dards and related land uses are interdependent,
EPA, the States and localities should develop and
enforce them as an integral package to sustain the
intrinsic landscape features and associated uses.
Backed by proper land use planning and regulation,
the environmental standards package can be used
as a tool to assure continuance of compatible land
uses and, if consistently enforced, will provide a
dependable basis for future planning, development
and conservation.
6. Safeguard the public interest in our environmen-
tal standards through State-local scheduling of ac-
cess and shoreland protection with investment m en-
vironmental clean-up timetables. If the public does
not take immediate steps to "capture the benefits"
prior to completition of our pollution control in-
vestment, we will lose our rights to the very
recreational, scenic, and other values sought
through the standards for high quality water and
air and acceptable noise levels. FWPCA specifically
encourages combining " 'open space' and
recreational considerations" with waste treatment
management. State and local agencies and private
interests have a unique opportunity and respon-
sibility to schedule now the necessary protection of
public access and of the shoreland setting (or buffer
areas) to ensure public enjoyment of the substantial
investments in water, air, and noise pollution con-
trol and improved solid waste management.
7. Preserve environmentally-critical areas through
State, local and selected Federal actions (e.g.,
wetlands, shoreland, flood plains, ground water
recharge areas, water supply lands, steep slopes
and vegetative buffers). These natural systems
filter out water and air pollutants, reduce noise, and
afford attractive visual settings. At the same time,
they provide invaluable fish and wildlife habitat and
outdoor recreation opportunities. Their preser-
vation yields multiple reinforcing environmental,
social, and economic benefits.
EPA's National "Wetlands Policy" officially
recognizes the critical need to protect wetlands and
prohibits construction of waste treatment facilities
in wetlands (except where no alternative of lesser
environmental damage is feasible). The Safe
Drinking Water Act calls for protection of ground-
water supplies and encourages compatible uses of
existing and potential water supply lands. State
plans to prevent significant deterioration of air
quality may classify pristine areas where little
growth would be permitted, reinforcing critical
areas protection.
8. Dedicate prime productive lands to those uses
for which intrinsically they are environmentally-
suited to meet long term social and economic needs
through State, local and selected Federal action
(e.g., prime agricultural lands, productive estuarine
systems, critical fish and wildlife habitat, and
quality outdoor recreation areas). If New England's
prize valley farms and estuaries continue to be
preempted by urban/resort development, they will
be lost forever as a productive base to sustain our
very survival. Later, other lands will have to be
sought — less fertile, more susceptible to erosion
and requiring greater energy consumption. Fur-
ther, preservation of prime productive lands and air
quality maintenance mutually reinforce one
another.
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9. Develop State and areawide site location plans
to meet long-range wastewater and solid waste
management and water supply needs. Recycling
and integrated waste management, encouraged in
FWPCA and Solid Waste Acts, require careful land
use planning and reservation of future sites.
Locational requirements embrace transportation,
processing, marketing, treatment, ultimate dis-
posal, as well as potential technological change
and future expansion. The Clean Air Act and FWP-
CA require consideration of the environmental ef-
fects of control processes and ultimate disposal of
sludge and other residues.
EPA, further, encourages the States and
localities to employ land use planning as a tool for
evaluating the trade-offs among air, water, and
solid waste measures on degradation of the common
land base.
10. Adopt complementary land management prac-
tices that control pollution from "nonpoint" and "in-
direct" sources through State assistance to land-
owners. Land management practices of private (or
public) landowners can reduce water pollution from
nonpoint sources (including pesticides), air
pollution from open burning practices and poor traf-
fic control, and solid waste problems from
inadequately operated disposal areas.
EPA and the States under FWPCA must identify
and propose solutions to nonpoint sources of water
pollution "including land use requirements". Ground-
water pollution from septic systems must be con-
trolled. Pesticide use and application are regulated
under the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Roden-
ticide Act. State air quality implementation plans
include provisions to control open burning, trans-
portation and land use strategies, and "indirect
source" regulations which restrict vehicle access
and operation. EPA solid waste management
guidelines cover disposal operations and ultimate
site use.
IMPLEMENTATION
EPA, working with the States, regional agencies
and 'localities, will actively support en-
vironmentally-sensitive land use policies through
steps as follows:
1. EPA will actively inform the land use
decision-makers of the environmental standards
and promote awareness of the environmental im-
plications of land use decisions. It will do so through
workshops, planning assistance to State and
regional agencies, municipal facilities grants,
discharge permits, air quality regulations, en-
vironmental assessments and impact statements,
research and public information.
2. EPA, working with State and regional agen-
cies, Witt identify opportunities for considering land
use policies for pollution prevention common to the
several EPA programs. EPA will coordinate its
several planning programs with land use con-
siderations: areawide waste treatment manage-
ment plans (Sec. 208 of FWPCA), air implemen-
tation plans (Sec. 110 of Clean Air Act — e.g.,
Air Quality Maintenance Plans, Transporta-
tion Control Strategies, Indirect Source re-
quirements, and Significant Deterioration plans),
aquifer protection (Sec. 1424 of Safe Drinking
Water Act), and State and regional solid waste
plans (Sees. 208 & 209 of Solid Waste Act). EPA
will strongly encourage State and regional efforts
to integrate systematically the air, water quality,
water supply, solid waste and noise programs as an
environmental package into a common land use
plan.
Under OMB Circular A-95, EPA will require
State and regional planning agencies to develop
common assumptions on population size and
distribution, economic activity and land uses. The
States and localities will find it advantageous to in-
tegrate into a common land use policy the location
policies, land use regulations, performance stan-
dards, and tax policies required to meet the several
environmental requirements.
EPA will hold workshops of interdisciplinary
staff teams (air, water, solid waste) with State and
regional planning agencies and their consultants to
integrate the several environmental programs into
a common land use policy. EPA will initially demon-
strate this approach in a few selected planning
regions (Sec. 208 of FWPCA), confronted with
several critical environmental and land use issues.
3. EPA will work closely with the Coastal Zone
Management Office (CZM) and the coastal States to
incorporate the air, water and other environmental
standards and objectives into State CZM
programs. EPA will hold workshops with State
CZM liaison officials, environmental agencies, and
appropriate regional planning agencies on en-
vironmental goals and requirements. EPA and the
State environmental agencies will periodically
review CZM programs to certify that State CZM
land, air and water uses meet environmental stan-
dards and goals, and in turn, they will assure that
their programs are consistent with CZM (Sec. 307
of CZM).
4. EPA will offer technical assistance on the en-
vironmental considerations and permit require-
ments in the location and siting of major regional
facilities. These include pending decisions on oil
developments, power plants, transportation
systems, and waste treatment facilities. EPA will
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schedule planning assistance to help the coastal
States and regional planning agencies identify the
diverse environmental impacts of potential on-
shore developments associated with any off-shore
oil drilling or production.
5. EPA, on its part, uritt require grant and permit
applicants to document futt coordination of their
proposals with official State and local land use plans
and careful evaluation of their land use impacts.
Location and design assumptions shall document
the analysis of population and growth goals, land
use plans, open space plans, conservation plans,
secondary impacts and associated environmental ef-
fects. EPA will take advantage of land use as the
common factor to relate its diverse, sometimes con-
flicting, programs which influence land use
decisions.
Further, in administering the grant and permit
programs, EPA will encourage the States and
localities to use land use policy as a positive alter-
native to future investment in remedial waste
treatment facilities and to direct the location and
timing of development toward areas where treat-
ment facilities prove cost-effective and en-
vironmentally-sound.
The relevant EPA programs and requirements
are:
a. Areawide waste treatment plans — develop
water-related land use plans evaluating en-
vironmental constraints on land use, en-
vironmentally-critical areas, facilities systems,
non-structural measures, nonpoint source con-
trols ("including land use requirements") and
regulatory programs for implementing the
plans. Facilities plans, basin plans, and permits
must conform to these plans. (Sec. 208 of FWP-
CA).
b. Basin plans — relate wastewater load
allocations to plans for the location, scale and
timing of development (potential pollution
sources), to land use plans and to conservation
plans. Load allocations are enforced through the
permit program (Sec. 303(e) of FWPCA).
c. Wastewater treatment facilities plans —
document relationship of location, siting, design
capacity and timing of waste treatment plans and
sewers to land use and conservation plans (Sec.
201 of FWPCA). Design capacity must meet
"needs" and "needs" derive from land use pat-
terns (Sec. 204 (a)(5) of FWPCA). En-
vironmentally acceptable sludge disposal sites
must be identified.
d. Municipal facilities grants priority systems —
give high priority in allocation of grant funds to
projects to treat current pollution loads and low
priority to sewers to serve future development.
Discourage or reject projects which lead to
premature urbanization of unpopulated areas.
(Sees. 106 & 303(e) of FWPCA).
e. Municipal treatment facility discharge per-
mits — submit programs for allocating growth to
keep within design capacity once the flow ex-
ceeds 80 percent of capacity (Sec. 402(b) and EPA
regulations).
f. Industrial permits: new sources of air
emissions and water discharges — evaluate im-
pacts of the proposed emission or discharge upon
air and water standards and land uses, including
potential secondary impacts upon land use and
associated environmental quality (Sees. 110 and
111 of Clean Air Act, Sec. 402 and 511 of FWPCA
and NEPA).
g. Development above water supply aquifers —
prohibit Federal financial assistance (grant, con-
tract, loan guarantee, or otherwise) which EPA
determines may contaminate a sole source
aquifer (Sec. 1424 of Safe Drinking Water Act).
h. Air quality maintenance plans — introduce
emission controls and land use policies to main-
tain air quality in areas, such as southern New
England, where potential growth may violate
national air quality standards (Sec. 110 of Clean
Air Act).
i. Transportation control strategies — consider
land use and transportation patterns in the
strategies required to reduce or modify motor
vehicle traffic and hydrocarbon emitters in
metropolitan areas (Sec. 110 of Clean Air Act).
j. Indirect source evaluations and permits —
review proposals for major traffic-generating
facilities to ensure that their location, siting, and
design will not cause air quality standards to be
exceeded (Sec. 110 of Clean Air Act).
k. State plans on significant deterioration of air
quality — classify areas for air quality preserva-
tion, balanced with industrial development, tai-
lored to Statewide environmental and land use
plans (Sec. 110 of Clean Air Act).
1. Solid waste management plans and programs
— consider impacts of proposed solid waste
facilities and sites on land uses, as well as land
suitability of potential sites (Sees. 208 and 209 of
Solid Waste Act),
m. Environmental assessments and impact
statement — evaluate the impact of proposed
municipal facilities grants and new source per-
mits on growth, land use, and associated en-
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vironmental effects (NEPA and Sec. 511 of FWP-
CA).
6. EPA, in writing and in reviewing en-
vironmental impact statements, will evaluate the
probable primary and secondary impacts on land
use -and associated environmental quality, and
urges other reviewers to do so from the perspective
of their interest or expertise. This requires
documentation of growth goals, potential land use
changes, land suitability, and potential en-
vironmental effects.
7. EPA, with the Federal Regional Council, will
offer technical guidance and support A-95 reviews
of the secondary impact of proposed projects on
land use and environmental quality. Through its
planning and technical assistance programs, EPA
will issue guidance to build-up the capability in
State and regional A-95 planning agencies to con-
duct authoritative environmental evaluations early
in the planning as well as in the project review
stage. To assure that environmental issues
associated with local and areawide land use impacts
are fully aired, EPA strongly encourages State and
regional A-95 planning agencies to comment in-
dependently and forcefully on potential impacts. It
will give careful consideration and weight to their
comments in administering municipal waste treat-
ment grants, in issuing discharge permits, in ad-
ministering air and water pollution control program
support grants, in preparing environmental
assessments and impact statements on waste treat-
ment facilities and permits, and in commenting
upon environmental impact statements prepared
by other Federal agencies. The EPA urges the
State air and water pollution control agencies to
take an active role in soliciting A-95 comments.
8. EPA will work with the States and the U.S.
Bureau of Outdoor Recreation to help schedule
acquisition, zoning, and tax policies to protect
public access and shoreland or setting concurrently
with the scheduled implementation of water, air
and noise control measures. EPA will seek coor-
dination of State and local land protection priorities
of State planning and recreation agencies with air
and water clean-up schedules. It will work with the
Bureau of Outdoor Recreation on demonstration
water corridors.
9. EPA will encourage the States and localities
to plan for multiple use of waste treatment
facilities. They can do so in the preparation of
areawide waste treatment plans, facilities plans,
project siting and design, and acquisition of
easements. EPA urges localities, pollution control
districts and design consultants to work with State-
local park and recreation agencies, conservation
commissions and regional planning agencies to
develop such opportunities. EPA encourages
funding (50 percent) of associated open space
acquisition and development under the Land and
Water Conservation Fund, administered by the
U.S. Bureau of Outdoor Recreation through the
State outdoor recreation agencies.
10. EPA will provide guidance to other Federal,
State and regional agencies on needs and ways to
protect environmentally-critical areas and produc-
tive lands. EPA will work with other Federal agen-
cies and urges the State environmental agencies to
work with their sister agencies (recreation, fish and
game, water resource and planning) to identify
preservation needs and program priorities. EPA
urges the States to seek priority for such areas in
Federal, State and local land acquisition, in zoning,
in preferential tax policies, and in locating and
siting private development. It will seek mutual sup-
port through air quality planning and significant
deterioration regulations. EPA, working with the
States, will take advantage of the opportunities to
work with:
- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, State fish and game
agencies and Conservation Commissions in
carrying out the national EPA "Wetlands Protec-
tion Policy" (and mutually supporting significant
deterioration regulations).
— The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the
U.S. De.pt. of Housing and Urban Development
and local agencies on implementation of flood
plain zoning requirements for all Federally-
assisted programs and financing under the
National Flood Insurance Act of 1973.
— The U.S. Bureau of Outdoor Recreation and
the State outdoor recreation agencies on poten-
tial park, recreation and open space areas.
— The U.S. Geological Survey, State water sup-
ply agencies and planning agencies concerned
with protecting future water supply land and
aquifers.
— The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Coastal
Zone Management Office on fish and wildlife
habitat and estuarine systems.
— The U.S. De.pt. of Agriculture on prime
agricultural lands, that also sustain air and water
quality.
11. EPA will work with other Federal and State
agencies concerned with complementary land
management or regulations to control nonpoint
pollution or "indirect sources".
— EPA will work with regional (and State) coun-
terparts in the U.S. Soil Conservation Service,
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Forest Service, Extension Service and Dept. of
Transportation on performance standards for
construction, forestry, agriculture and road main-
tenance. Likewise, the State environmental agen-
cies are encouraged to work with State
agricultural, natural resources, soil conservation,
construction and regulatory agencies, with Soil
Conservation Districts, and with universities.
— EPA encourages the state environmental
agencies to work with other State agencies,
localities, and municipal leagues on measures for
checking urban runoff pollution, such as street
clean, oil/debris traps, and stormwater detention
basins.
— EPA will develop recommendations to
strengthen State and local technical assistance
and regulation on siting, designing, constructing,
and operating septic systems.
12. EPA will solicit research and demonstration
on relationships of environmental quality to land
use patterns, policies and regulations. It solicits
proposals on environmental constraints on land use
patterns, impact of facilities investment on land use
patterns, land use regulations, tax policies, im-
proved land disposal systems, and land use indices
for generation of pollutants. It seeks research on
land use as a common element relating air, water
and solid waste management.
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1975-601-838
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