Community Water Project Acceleration Act

This bill, known as the "Community Water Project Acceleration Act," aims to significantly streamline the environmental review process for specific water resources development projects. It mandates that the Secretary of the Army designate certain projects as categorically excluded from the environmental assessment and environmental impact statement requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). These exclusions apply to projects conducted under continuing authority programs or environmental infrastructure assistance programs . A key condition for eligibility is that the non-Federal sponsor must be responsible for performing the construction work. Furthermore, projects must satisfy specific financial criteria to qualify for this expedited review. This includes projects where the Federal share of the cost is less than $6,000,000 , or where the Federal share is less than 15 percent of a total project cost not exceeding $35,000,000 . The Secretary is also required to issue regulations to implement these categorical exclusions within 150 days of the Act's enactment.