Discipline reports are WSDOT studies prepared by Regional Offices or Divisions to document environmental studies and investigations. When a project will have little impact on, or generate little public interest in, an element of the environment, and the FHWA area engineer agrees, that conclusion can be documented instead in a technical memorandum. Technical memoranda are much less involved and cost considerably less money than discipline reports. These two types of studies form the basis of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), Environmental Assessment (EA), or Documented Categorical Exclusion (DCE).
The following guidance is available to help WSDOT decide when and how to prepare a technical memorandum or discipline report:
WSDOT Environmental Services Office Memorandum on Discipline Reports and Technical Memorandums.
WSDOT Environmental Procedures Manual (EPM). Many of the chapters in Part 4 of the EPM contain guidance for determining when a techincal memorandum or discipline report is needed for a project, and the following discipline report checklists and technical memoranda decision matrices and templates are available as exhibits in the respective chapters to guide the development of any discipline reports or techincal memoranda that may be needed:
- Discipline Report Checklists:
- Technical Memoranda Decision Matrices and Templates. Some decision matrices and templates are available to determine if a tech memo is needed, and to guide their preparation (if needed), for the following disciplines:
- Template for Coordinated Review of Discipline Reports. Once a discipline report is prepared, it typically gets reviewed for sufficiency. This template may be used for coordinated review of discipline reports. It is helpful to give instructions (pdf 21k) to your reviewers to ensure consistency of review.
WSDOT Discipline Specialists. WSDOT Environmental Services maintains this list of discipline specialists who can help other WSDOT offices and local transportation agencies in the review of discipline reports.
Example Technical Memoranda and Discipline Reports. A few examples of technical memoranda and discipline reports are available on the NEPA / SEPA Guidance webpage.