Environmental Permits, Issues and Commitments

Environmental concerns should be identified early in the project so any mitigation may be addressed and accurately reflected in the design documents using the appropriate environmental permits, issues and commitments (EPIC) form. EPICs are any permits, issues, coordination commitments or mitigation obligations necessary to address, offset or compensate for social, economic or environmental impacts of a project. These may include sole source aquifer coordination, waters of the U.S. permits, stormwater permits, traffic noise abatement, threatened or endangered species coordination, archeological and historical coordination, and any other mitigation or environmental commitments associated with the project. EPICs must be specified in the construction documents and will be monitored for compliance during the project and for a defined period of time after construction completion. A digital version of the standard EPIC form is available on TxDOT’s
publication web page
.
Federal Requirements
  1. 23 CFR §635.309(j)
    – Requires the authorizing entity to make a determination that appropriate measures have been included in the bid documents to ensure conditions and commitments made to mitigate environmental harm are implemented.
  2. 23 CFR §771.109(b)
    – Requires commitments made during the environmental process to be implemented.
  3. 23 CFR §636.109
    – For design-build projects, requires the request for proposals to address how environmental commitments and mitigation measures will be implemented.
State Requirements
  1. 43 TAC §2.2
    – Provides TxDOT’s environmental policy statement.
  2. 43 TAC §2.3(b)(2)
    – Requires transportation projects using state funds to comply with applicable state and federal environmental laws.
  3. 43 TAC §26.35
    – Requires a regional mobility authority to agree to be responsible for implementing all environmental commitments for projects on the state highway system
  4. 43 TAC §27.44(e)
    – Requires regional tollway authorities to comply with
    Texas Administrative Code, Title 43, Chapter 2, Subchapter C
    for projects on the state highway system.
Required Practices
More information on required environmental procedures and process are included in the
LGPM Guide
. In general, all projects must comply with TxDOT environmental policies and the EPICs must be included in design documents.