What are environmental impact statements?
An environmental impact statement, or EIS, is a type of government document that outlines the impact of a proposed project on its surrounding environment. The National Environmental Protection Act of 1969 (NEPA) requires Federal agencies to conduct environmental assessments, which often produce EISs, when their actions significantly affect the environment. State and local agencies frequently require environmental assessments and also produce EISs.
EISs inform the work and decisions of policymakers and community leaders, and typically follow a process in which an environmental assessment is conducted, a draft EIS is developed, public hearings on the draft EIS are held, and a final EIS is produced.
Because they are not published through mainstream channels, environmental impact statements can be challenging to locate. This guide is designed to help you locate environmental impact statements from Federal and other sources. The University of Minnesota Libraries collects EISs and they can be found in several campus libraries, but given the number of EISs that are produced, campus libraries may only be a starting point for locating the EIS you seek.
Search for environmental impact statements
Start with:
- EPA Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) DatabaseSearch by title, date, agency, and/or state/territory to find:
- Records of all EISs received by EPA from federal agencies since 1987
- EPA comment letters on EISs since 2001
- Electronic (PDF) versions of EISs received by EPA since October 2012
- Libraries SearchTo find Environmental Impact Statements in the UMN Libraries Catalog, use the Advanced Search to search by the specific Subject Term. For example, try Environmental impact statements or Environmental impact statements -- Minnesota.
- Agricultural & Environmental Science DatabaseSearch journals and literature on agriculture, pollution, animals, environment, policy, natural resources, water issues and more. Searches tools like AGRICOLA, Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management (ESPM), and Digests of Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) databases.
Also check:
- HathiTrustContains many government technical reports that have been digitized, though in most cases, you won't need to search HathiTrust directly. You'll find links to HathiTrust in the catalog when one of our document titles match a full text document in HathiTrust.
- Federal RegisterThe Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of United States Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents. The Federal Register announces the availability of EISs and other related materials, such as Notices of Intent to prepare or to terminate a draft of an EIS. You can search the Federal Register to learn more about the circumstances and decision-making around an EIS.
- Minnesota Environmental Review Projects Database (Minnesota Environmental Quality Board)Contains all environmental review projects submitted to the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board since May 2023. Search using various parameters or browse all projects.