CEQA/NEPA, Environmental Permitting, and Regulatory Assistance

RBI provides a variety of environmental consulting services for California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance requirements, state and federal construction-related environmental permits, and other California environmental regulatory assistance. RBI’s managing partner, Dr. Michael Bryan, and the RBI staff have years of collective experience and expertise investigating complex environmental ecosystems in central and northern California. RBI staff’s combination of high-level technical knowledge and CEQA/NEPA experience in the fields of terrestrial and aquatic biological resources, hydrology, and water quality and toxicology make them uniquely qualified in providing impact assessment, mitigation, and compliance monitoring services for these resource categories. In fact, we are often brought in by other consulting firms to provide CEQA/NEPA compliance expertise for these resource categories. RBI often serves as the lead CEQA/NEPA compliance consultant for terrestrial resource evaluation and regulatory compliance on complex and controversial projects, specifically due to their history of providing highly accurate and legally defensible analyses, which can thereby avert potential litigation. Additionally, full-service CEQA/NEPA compliance services are provided by RBI staff for our wastewater and water resource management clients and subcontracts where necessary for specialty resource consulting services (e.g., cultural resources, air quality).

A hallmark of RBI is our innovative services in the field of environmental permitting and our expertise in regulatory processes and permitting requirements for both the federal and state Endangered Species Act, permitting of dredging and fill activities for wetlands and other water bodies pursuant to both federal Clean Water Act (CWA) and state jurisdictional requirements, California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) streambed alteration agreements, low-threat and limited-threat waste discharge requirements, and CWA Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) programs. RBI has conducted surveys for a number of federal and state listed Threatened and Endangered species, federal Candidate species, state Species of Special Concern, and U.S. Forest Service sensitive species. RBI’s regulatory specialists work to bring the most current science into the technical assessments of ecological functions, and strive to streamline the permitting process for projects involving work in wetlands and other water bodies that involve multiple agencies and complex state and federal resource protection regulations. Moreover, RBI’s staff have developed long-term productive relationships with the resource and regulatory agencies involved in the permitting processes.

View Signature Projects

Primary Areas of Expertise

• CEQA/NEPA Documentation
• Compliance Monitoring & Reporting
• CWA Section 401 Water Quality Certifications, 404 Permitting, and & CDFW 1602 Streambed Alteration Agreement Acquisitions
• Acquisition of Limited- and Low-Threat Discharge NPDS General Permits
• NPDES Permitting 
• TMDL Special Studies and Waste Load Allocation (WLA) Compliance Assessments