DHS 18.04(1)(1) “Action” means any activity initiated or otherwise undertaken by the department, including a proposal for legislation, which may affect the quality of the environment of human beings.

DHS 18.04(2)(2) “Alternatives” means actions other than the proposed action which may be reasonably available to achieve the same or altered purpose of the proposed action, including the alternative of no action.

DHS 18.04(3)(3) “DEIS” means draft environmental impact statement.

DHS 18.04(4)(4) “Department” means the department of health services.

DHS 18.04(5)(5) “Environmental assessment” or “EA” means a concise public document prepared by or at the direction of the department which provides sufficient evidence and analysis concerning a proposed type II action to enable the department to determine whether to prepare an environmental impact statement or issue a finding of no significant impact, and it includes the study, development and description of alternatives.

DHS 18.04(6)(6) “Environmental impact statement” or “EIS” means a detailed, written analytical report prepared by or at the direction of the department, which describes the anticipated effects on the environment of a proposed major action. An “EIS” is meant to adequately inform department decisionmakers and the public about the environmental consequences of an action in a way that will assist and guide decisionmaking.

DHS 18.04(7)(7) “FEIS” means final environmental impact statement.

DHS 18.04(8)(8) “Finding of no significant impact” means a conclusion of an environmental assessment that the proposed action is not a major action which will significantly affect the quality of the human environment and that preparation of an EIS is therefore not required.

DHS 18.04(9)(9) “Human environment” or “environment of human beings” means the natural and physical surroundings of people and their relationship with those surroundings. It includes the economic and social aspects of the surroundings of people only when these are inter-related with the natural and physical aspects of those surroundings.

DHS 18.04(10)(10) “Major action” means an action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. Actions are called “major” when they significantly affect the environment of human beings.“Major” reinforces but does not have a meaning independent of“significantly.”

DHS 18.04(11)(11) “Program” means a broad area of the department’s responsibility, namely, health, adult corrections, juvenile corrections, mental disabilities, social services, economic assistance, or vocational rehabilitation.

DHS 18.04(12)(12) “Resource” means water, air, land, plants, animals, energy, historic properties, vistas, wilderness, or that tranquillity which is affected by noise.

DHS 18.04(13)(13) “Scoping” means a process conducted at the outset of preparation of an EIS which involves asking for the views of other governmental agencies and the interested public about what should be in the EIS, the issues it should address, and the relatively more significant issues that should be subjected to in-depth analysis.

DHS 18.04(14)(14) “Secretary” means the secretary of the Wisconsin department of health services.

DHS 18.04(15)(15) “Significantly affecting” means, in reference to actions, having considerable and important impacts on the quality of the environment, either in terms of the breadth of impact or the severity of impact.

DHS 18.04(16)(16) “WEPA” means the Wisconsin environmental policy act, s. 1.11, Stats.

DHS 18.04 HistoryHistory: Cr. Register, June, 1983, No. 330, eff. 7-1-83; corrections in (3) and (14) made under s. 13.92 (4) (b) 6., Stats., Register November 2008 No. 635.

DHS 18.05DHS 18.05 Types of actions. The department has grouped its actions into 3 types to facilitate its determination of need for an EIS.

DHS 18.05(1)(1) Type I actions. A type I action will always require an EIS. Construction of a new residential institution of 65 or more beds at a location where there was not previously a department-operated institution is a type I action.

DHS 18.05(2)(2) Type II actions. A type II action may or may not require an EIS, depending on the significance of the action. All of these actions shall be evaluated by means of an environmental assessment (EA). In the EA, the department shall study, develop and describe appropriate alternatives to the proposed action.

DHS 18.05(2)(a)1.1. Construction of a new residential institution of fewer than 65 beds at a location where there was not previously a department-operated institution.

DHS 18.05(2)(a)2.2. Construction at an existing department-operated institution of a new or replacement building or other structure or the addition to or change in the exterior physical design of a building or other structure, the cost of which is the same as or more than the limit where approval of the building commission is required pursuant to s. 13.48 (10), Stats.

DHS 18.05(2)(a)3.3. Acquisition or modification of an existing building to serve as a community residential facility for clients.

DHS 18.05(2)(a)4.4. Modification of a building at an existing department-operated institution to serve a different program and population.

DHS 18.05(2)(a)5.5. Changes in land use at institutions operated by the department to include but not be limited to construction of athletic fields, roads, parking facilities, bridges, and walls or fences.

DHS 18.05(2)(a)6.6. Construction of a planned lake or pond development or renewal of an existing pond development.