Local Environmental Issues

Resources and Forms

Please note: We are in the process of updating the LAPM to reflect recently issued Executive Orders, which rescinded previous Executive Orders relating to several environmental topics, including Environmental Justice and Climate Change. The affected chapters, forms, and templates will be updated as soon as possible.

Resources

Forms

Training

For environmental training opportunities for local and tribal agencies, please visit the Local Assistance Training & Resource website. To subscribe and receive weekly DLA News & Training Announcements for local and tribal agencies, visit the DLA Blog and enter your contact information in the right side column.

On-Demands

There are several On-Demands that are available for viewing offered by the Office of Environmental Compliance and Outreach.

  • Intro to the Office of Environmental Compliance and Outreach (ECO): (YouTube) | PowerPoint (PPT).
    • ECO office staff
    • Local Assistance Program overview
    • Local Assistance vs. Capital Projects
    • Duties and Responsibilities
    • Intro to Local Public Agencies
    • Project types
    • Office Services
  • FHWA Emergency Relief (ER) Webinar
    • FHWA Emergency Relief Program overview, purpose
    • Types of disasters
    • Project approval process
    • Project completion process
    • Deadlines and federal funding
    • Advanced Construction (AC) process
    • Eligible and ineligible work
    • Resiliency Requirements for Non-ER projects
    • Resources and contacts
  • NEPA Overview (YouTube)
    • What is NEPA? What does it do?
    • NEPA applicability
    • NEPA assignment
    • NEPA lead agency
    • Laws corresponding to NEPA
    • FHWA Responsibilities
  • NEPA vs. CEQA (YouTube)
    • Document comparisons between NEPA and CEQA
    • Terminology and definitions of significance comparison

Future Federal Aid Series Trainings

See our planned Federal Aid Series trainings below. Please note that information may be subject to change. For more information, please contact Haiyan Zhang.

  • One virtual training planned on May 20, 2025
  • One virtual training planned on August 12, 2025
  • One virtual training planned on October 28, 2025

Federal Aid Series Q&A

Please see the document attached for some common Q&As

Resource Agency Partnership Trainings

Partnering

Reports

Quarterly Reports

Monitoring requirements in both the 23 USC 326 CE Assignment and 23 USC 327 NEPA Assignment MOUs require Caltrans to report twice a year to FHWA. For 23 USC 327 NEPA Assignment, Caltrans must provide the FHWA California Division a report every six months that lists any approvals and decisions Caltrans has made with respect to its responsibilities under part 3 of the MOU. The 23 USC 326 CE Assignment MOU requires Caltrans to provide a list of Categorical Exclusion (CE) determinations that it approves in each fiscal quarter.

FHWA Audits

Under the 23 USC 327 NEPA Assignment MOU, pursuant to MAP-21, FHWA audits are no longer required, however, SAFETEA-LU required that FHWA audit Caltrans' performance under the Pilot Program twice a year for the first two years of the Pilot Program, and once a year thereafter to ensure that Caltrans is meeting federal requirements.

FHWA CE Monitoring Review Report

SAFETEA-LU requires that FHWA monitor Caltrans' performance under the CE assignment program. Monitoring occurs approximately every 15 months and includes Caltrans District visits with interviews of Caltrans staff and project file reviews.

Contacts

Headquarters

Name Responsibilities Telephone Numbers E-mail
Office Chief
Sammantha Soto (Acting) NEPA Assignment and Environmental Compliance Mobile: (279) 599-3198 sammantha.soto@dot.ca.gov
Environmental Policy and Training Coordinators
Haiyan Zhang Districts 1-12 (279) 599-3448 haiyan.zhang@dot.ca.gov
Reena Gohil Districts 1-12 (916) 214 2081 reena.gohil@dot.ca.gov
Environmental Database and Reporting
Jonathan Oshalim Districts 1-12 (279) 599-1286 Jonathan.Oshalim@dot.ca.gov
Resource Agency Coordinator
Danielle Elledge Districts 1-12 (279) 599-3341 danielle.elledge@dot.ca.gov
David Gould Districts 1-12 (530) 821-8305 david.gould@dot.ca.gov
Cultural Resources
Dana Cota Districts 1-12 (916) 214-1354 dana.cota@dot.ca.gov
Nicholas Thompson Districts 1-12 (909) 260-5815 nicholas.thompson@dot.ca.gov

District Senior Environmental Contacts

Districts DLA Senior Environmental Contacts Telephone Numbers E-mail
1 Cassie Nichols (707) 798-7557 cassie.nichols@dot.ca.gov
2 Eric Rulison (916) 267-0063 Eric.Rulison@dot.ca.gov
3 Veronica Wilson (530) 649-4871 Veronica.wilson@dot.ca.gov
4 Thomas Holstein (510) 960-0794 Thomas.Holstein@dot.ca.gov
5 Heidi Borders (805) 363-6516 Heidi.Borders@dot.ca.gov
6 Pedram Mafi (559) 981-7400 Pedram.Mafi@dot.ca.gov
7 Michael Enwedo (213) 335-0060 Michael.Enwedo@dot.ca.gov
8 Aaron Burton (909) 501-5971 Aaron.Burton@dot.ca.gov
9 Stephen Pfeiler (760) 874-8329 Stephen.Pfeiler@dot.ca.gov
10 Elizabeth Hummel (209) 948-3825 Elizabeth.Hummel@dot.ca.gov
11 Kevin Hovey (619) 606-3108 Hovey.Kevin@dot.ca.gov
12 Alben Phung (657) 328-6054 alben.phung@dot.ca.gov

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