The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has been at the forefront of new ways of looking at system design with respect to sensitive eco-systems driven by practice not by regulation. Its program approach has earned WSDOT a national reputation for effectively managing infrastructure development while protecting the environment. WSDOT's program is rooted in federal legislation - the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Transportation Equity Act of the 21st Century (TEA-21).
NEPA serves as the cornerstone of federal environmental law. It requires federal actions to consider the impact of those proposed activities on the people, resources and economies of local communities in which those projects are being considered. TEA-21 is equally clear. Transportation decisions must be balanced between the social, economic and environmental factors affecting infrastructure decisions. This prescription for action is the foundation of WSDOT's environmental program. That is, transportation programs must integrate its infrastructure responsibilities with a stewardship toward sensitive eco-systems.
Federal Laws
Transportation systems are a unique form of engineering dynamics. They are a fluid, interconnected system of highways, rail, aviation and marine projects that are primarily built along a linear landscape. To meet the balance test of NEPA, a state transportation agency must consider the cornucopia of federal regulations. The challenge to transportation planners and designers is in melding the requirements of the seemingly endless numbers of environmental laws and regulations that often appear to be in direct conflict with each other.
State Laws
Compounding the balancing act is the additive requirements of State environmental laws.
Local Laws
Now, in Washington, add 39 counties and 275 cities to the mix. Each jurisdiction is equipped with its own set of laws, ordinances and regulations, all adding to a "regulatory soup" that must be balanced-- by transportation organizations before a project can advance. Couple this problem with the 27 federally recognized tribes in Washington all with whom treaty rights need to be considered. The possibility for conflict between Federal, State, local and tribal units of government is almost a certainty. How do you balance all these factors and maneuver through the regulatory labyrinth?
The Black Hole of How
The black hole of how is to planners and designers what the cosmic black hole is to physicists - a mass of energy that consumes all energy and life around it.
In the case of the transportation industry, avoiding the endless conflict and confusion of HOW is a considerable challenge. WSDOT has developed a new, progressive and invigorating approach to the challenge… it starts with a series of environmental precepts that governs our actions.
WSDOT's Environmental Precepts
To change the paradigm of conflict based regulation and to solve the HOW of balance, WSDOT initiated a charter of conduct with respect to environmental integration into its delivery ethic. The Darth Vader of State agencies was now reaching out to use its considerable resources in a new way - partnerships to environmental stewardship. It is a seven step strategy that significantly altered how agencies interact with each other in Washington State. Simply stated, WSDOT committed to:
Understand each agency's mission (also seek to explain its transportation mission to others)
Work toward a state position on issues
Support cooperative approaches with fiscal and human resources
Work on solutions beneficial to all
Advance solutions that are ecologically sound and cost effective
Develop agreed upon implementation strategies
Acknowledge that taxpayers expect agencies of government to work together
This approach requires a considerable commitment to relationship building, education and training before programs or position are advanced. It is time intensive, but the product is ultimately filled with less conflict. Decisions stick!
In addition to its new precepts, WSDOT needed to come to grips with its own identity, environmentally speaking.
Environmental Identity
WSDOT is a proven leader in advocating for safe and cost effective transportation systems. It participates vigorously as an agency of government in developing effective engineering designs, construction processes and maintenance practices for such systems.
In the past, WSDOT approached environmental management in an entirely different way. It viewed environmental compliance as something you --needed to do to get a permit.-- Because its actions were permit driven, WSDOT's relationship with resource agencies was one of a regulated entity subjected to the interpretations of the regulator. The problem: You do not build sustainable, balanced programs on a project by project basis.
WSDOT got it! If it was to be successful in applying environmental standards to its programs, it had to become the same type of advocate in environmental management as it was in the development of engineering standards. That is, it had to see itself as an Agency of Government, vested with a mission to delivery transportation systems in cost effective and ecologically sound ways. WSDOT had a right to be at the table of regulation development.
In this new role, WSDOT could bring its considerable fiscal and human resources to resolve one of the most complex social issues of the day - balancing environmental regulations.
Program Pillars
Armed with environmental precepts and a new sense of identity, WSDOT committed itself to being a leaner and greener organization. To participate in the debate effectively, WSDOT committed to developing sound environmental programs that would govern its actions. That is, it would embark on a pathway to solve the --how of balance.-- WSDOT thus committed to program development that:
Involved credible processes - where all are included in decision making;
Strives to create Ecologically sound solutions;
Applied cost and benefit criteria to solutions;
Included outreach programs and public involvement
Reached conclusions that gained broad based community acceptance
WSDOT does not advocate the need for new regulations or new laws. Nor does it advocate for the elimination of laws. What WSDOT purports to do is to advocate for flexible interpretations to existing regulations. Rigid, one size fits all regulations do not work in Washington nor do they work well in other states.
Washington's solution is relationship driven and is adaptive. Its underlying mantra is that the process of environmental protection should never be allowed to kill the product of environmental protection - clean air, clean water, healthy habitat, abundant wildlife and toxic free properties.
WSDOT's Statewide Environmental Initiatives
The success of WSDOT's environmental program can be measured by the bi-partisan support it has gained in advancing its new way of doing business. By bringing resource agencies, environmental organizations, businesses, non-profit groups, tribes and watershed organizations together in its role of agency of government, WSDOT has advanced 15 pieces of environmental legislation that has shaped not only how WSDOT does business, but how the entire state of Washington is implementing balanced based decision making. The fifteen bills involve:
Studies - three bills (SB 5894; SB 5886; SB 6063)
Programs - six bills (HB 2031; SB 5313; HB2879; HB 3110; HB 2239; HB 1204)
Permit streamlining - four bills (SB 6061; SB 5210; HB 2496; HB 1893)
Resource Planning - two bills (HB 2514; HB 2079)
What is significant about this body of legislation is that WSDOT is considered a co-lead on managing many vital programs associated with environmental protection in the state. For example, WSDOT co-manages a successful fish passage barrier removal program with the State's Department of Fish & Wildlife and leads a multi-jurisdictional stormwater program. The State Legislature saw fit to place WSDOT in the lead of coordinating and tracking nearly 800 million dollars dedicated to the environment irrespective of agency. Truly a revolution in thinking and in action.
(NOTE: virtually all bills indicated above were passed unanimously).
Watershed Management in the state
All bills and actions sponsored by WSDOT evolve around watershed management. This is the predominant approach to resource management by all federal resource agencies and with state agencies in Washington. WSDOT is active in watershed management of natural resources since it has a physical presence in each of Washington's 62 watersheds. Integration of the built environment with the natural environment in Washington State centers on watersheds.
The Plan - Fail Cycle
The principle behind WSDOT's environmental approach is to break the plan-fail cycle. That is, all to often, the state and federal government provides funding to complete comprehensive plans in water supplies, sewer system management, habitat protection, flood management, etc.
The recommendations of these planning efforts usually result in a significant price tag to accomplish the objectives. Legislatures faced with competing demands usually provide some, but not all funding. Many programs die for lack of a permanent funding source. Hence, the plan-fail cycle.
The most damaging aspect of this phenomenon is the dissatisfaction of citizens with government.
How it works!
WSDOT began to apply its approach to environmental management by starting with identifying what had already been done. It took a $25,000 grant from USEPA and funding from FHWA's research program to develop a watershed model of resource management that integrated the built environment into environmental decision making.
WSDOT used its grant to spatially identify study areas within a Watershed - Snohomish basin - by using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). As you click on the polygon, a planning area is highlighted.
Bibliographies
A second click of the GIS mouse and an annotated Bibliography is revealed. This information identifies the funding source, the planning agency and other pertinent data to verify the legitimacy of the information being used. An important point for NEPA.
Tabular Data
A third click of the GIS mouse and a matrix of decisions within the planning study area is revealed in tabular form. This assembles data in an easy to store format so that developers of the data, both citizens and agency representatives, can see how information was gleaned from their resource plans.
Spatial References
Click again, and the planning data is taken from the GIS tabular system and plotted onto a geographically referenced map. Decisions can be identified by a duck or a fish logo. It is easy from the spatial data to see the relationship of projects to each other throughout the basin.
WSDOT can then place its 2 year, 6 year and 20 year system plans in this spatial format. Citizens can see how their ecology projects line up with WSDOT proposed activities. This is important when considering WSDOT's financial involvement within watersheds. For example, WSDOT spends 100 million dollars per biennium on environmental mitigation.
In order to spend monies in coordination with citizen groups, WSDOT sought and received legislative authority and federal agency approval to develop alternative mitigation strategies. This allowed WSDOT to spend its mitigation dollars on citizen friendly projects as long as the resource and regulatory agencies provide WSDOT with appropriate mitigation credits. These mitigation dollars represent a permanent funding source for basin groups. Remember, WSDOT is in every watershed of the state and therefore has potential dollars for mitigation partnerships with citizens.
State Environmental Dollars
Using WSDOT mitigation dollars in partnership with citizen groups breaks the plan-fail cycle and replaces it with the new model of plan-succeed. However, this is not the end of the story. What is unique about WSDOT's pilot is that it revealed to the State Legislature the totality of dollars being spent on environmental issues without coordination - nearly 800 million dollars of state monies.
The Legislature recently passed HB 1204 which places WSDOT in the lead of identifying all natural resource monies being spent in the state on environmental projects. By placing proposed state environmental projects on the GIS system identified above, citizens and their projects can be linked to funding availability. Citizens are now connected to the government that serves them. The foundation of a social revolution.
Merging Decision Making
WSDOT's approach of merging old planning data with new planning information, then capturing this data in GIS format, and adding proposed projects with a linkage to potential funding sources, provides a sustainable decision making apparatus that NEPA demands.
We believe we have eliminated the black hole of how and replaced it with a comprehensive decision making model that focuses on the outcome of regulations, i.e., cost effective and ecologically sound environments.