Categorical Exclusion means a category of actions that a bureau has determined normally do not significantly affect the quality of the human environment.

(a) Except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section, if an action is covered by a Departmental categorical exclusion, the bureau is not required to prepare an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement. If a proposed action does not meet the criteria for any of the listed Departmental categorical exclusions or any of the individual bureau categorical exclusions, then the proposed action must be analyzed in an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement.

(b) The actions listed in § 46.210 are categorically excluded, Department-wide, from preparation of environmental assessments or environmental impact statements.

(c) DOI has provided for extraordinary circumstances in which a normally excluded action may have a significant environmental effect and require additional analysis. Section 46.215 lists the extraordinary circumstances under which actions otherwise covered by a categorical exclusion require analyses under NEPA.

(1) Any action that is normally categorically excluded must be evaluated to determine whether it meets any of the extraordinary circumstances in § 46.215; if it does, further analysis and environmental documents must be prepared for the action.

(2) Bureaus must work within existing administrative frameworks, including any existing programmatic agreements, when deciding how to apply any of the § 46.215 extraordinary circumstances.

(d) Congress may establish categorical exclusions by legislation, in which case the terms of the legislation determine how to apply those categorical exclusions.

(e) A Responsible Official may rely on another agency's determination that a categorical exclusion applies to a particular proposed action if the action covered by that determination and the bureau proposed action are substantially the same. The Responsible Official need not conduct extraordinary circumstances review according to the protocol set forth at § 46.215 but must document any reliance on another agency's categorical exclusion determination. When more than one agency is reviewing a proposed action, a bureau may also reach and document a joint determination with another agency that a categorical exclusion applies to the action.

(f) Applying multiple categorical exclusions. Bureaus may apply multiple categorical exclusions in combination to cover a single proposed action. In some circumstances, the combination of categorical exclusions can cover all elements of a proposed action and support the bureau's determination that the effects of the proposed action, with all its elements, are not reasonably foreseeably to be significant. When a bureau completes its review of a proposed action in reliance on multiple categorical exclusions, the bureau must concisely document this reliance, including review for the presence of extraordinary circumstances that, if present, would preclude application of the categorical exclusions to the proposed action.

(g) Each bureau may rely on any categorical exclusion administratively established or adopted, under NEPA section 109, 42 U.S.C. 4336c,by.

(h) To establish or revise a categorical exclusion, the Department will determine that the action is of a type that normally does not significantly affect the quality of the human environment. In making this determination and identifying and describing such a category, the Department will:

(1) Develop a written record containing information to substantiate its determination;

(2) Consult with the Council on Environmental Quality on its proposed categorical exclusion, including the written record, for a period not to exceed 30 days prior to providing public notice as described in subparagraph (3); and

(3) Provide public notice in the Federal Register of establishment of the categorical exclusion and the location of availability of the written record.

(i) Removal of categorical exclusions. To remove a categorical exclusion from its NEPA procedures, the Department will follow steps similar to those by which it establishes or revises a categorical exclusion.

(j) Neither the establishment nor the modification or removal of a categorical exclusion from bureau NEPA procedures is subject to NEPA review.

The following actions are categorically excluded under § 46.205(b), unless any of the extraordinary circumstances in § 46.215 apply and reliance on any of them to support approval of a proposed action need not be documented:

(a) Personnel actions and investigations and personnel services contracts.

(b) Internal organizational changes and facility and bureau reductions and closings.

(c) Routine financial transactions including such things as salaries and expenses, procurement contracts (e.g., in accordance with applicable procedures and Executive Orders for sustainable or green procurement), guarantees, financial assistance, income transfers, audits, fees, bonds, and royalties.

(d) Departmental legal activities including, but not limited to, such things as arrests, investigations, patents, claims, and legal opinions. This does not include bringing judicial or administrative civil or criminal enforcement actions which are outside the scope of NEPA.

(e) Nondestructive data collection, inventory (including field, aerial, and satellite surveying and mapping), study, research, and monitoring activities.

(f) Routine and continuing government business, including such things as supervision, administration, operations, maintenance, renovations, and replacement activities having limited context and intensity (e.g., limited size and magnitude or short-term effects).

(g) Management, formulation, allocation, transfer, and reprogramming of the Department's budget at all levels. (This does not exclude the preparation of environmental documents for proposals included in the budget when otherwise required.)

(h) Legislative proposals of an administrative or technical nature (including such things as changes in authorizations for appropriations and minor boundary changes and land title transactions) or having primarily economic, social, individual, or institutional effects; and comments and reports on referrals of legislative proposals.

(i) Policies, directives, regulations, and guidelines: that are of an administrative, financial, legal, technical, or procedural nature; or whose environmental effects are too broad, speculative, or conjectural to lend themselves to meaningful analysis and will later be subject to the NEPA process, either collectively or case-by-case.

(j) Activities which are educational, informational, advisory, or consultative to other agencies, public and private entities, visitors, individuals, or the general public.

Extraordinary circumstances (see § 46.205(c)) exist for individual actions within categorical exclusions that may meet any of the criteria listed in paragraphs (a) through (i) of this section. Applicability of extraordinary circumstances to categorical exclusions is determined by the Responsible Official. If an extraordinary circumstance is not present, the Responsible Official may determine that the categorical exclusion applies to the proposed action and conclude review.

(a) Have significant impacts on public health or safety.

(b) Have significant impacts on such natural resources and unique geographic characteristics as historic or cultural resources; park, recreation or refuge lands; wilderness areas; wild or scenic rivers; national natural landmarks; sole or principal drinking water aquifers; prime farmlands; wetlands; floodplains; national monuments; migratory birds; and other ecologically significant or critical areas.

(c) Have highly uncertain and potentially significant environmental effects or involve unique or unknown environmental risks.

(d) Establish a precedent for future action or represent a decision in principle about future actions with potentially significant environmental effects.

(e) Have a direct relationship to other actions that implicate potentially significant environmental effects.

(f) Have significant impacts on properties listed, or eligible for listing, on the National Register of Historic Places as determined by the bureau.

(g) Have significant impacts on species listed, or proposed to be listed, on the List of Endangered or Threatened Species or have significant impacts on designated Critical Habitat for these species.

(h) Significantly limit access to and ceremonial use of Indian sacred sites on Federal lands by Indian religious practitioners or significantly adversely affect the physical integrity of such sacred sites.

(i) Contribute to potentially significant effects resulting from the introduction, continued existence, or spread of noxious weeds or non-native invasive species known to occur in the area or from other actions that promote the introduction, growth, or expansion of the range of such species (Federal Noxious Weed Control Act).