Public Notice: EPA Seeks Comments on the Preliminary Finding of No Significant Impact for the Weber River Watershed Resilience Partnership Project

Summary

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) invites the public to comment on its adoption of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service (USFS), Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest (UWCNF) Upper Weber Watershed Restoration June 2024 Environmental Assessment (EA) and preliminary Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), consistent with 40 C.F.R. § 6.200(d)(3).

Consistent with 40 C.F.R. § 6.202, EPA will not take action for at least 30 calendar days from the date the draft FONSI was signed, 7/9/2026

Background

In accordance with Section 102 of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), and the EPA NEPA implementing procedures at 40 CFR Part 6, EPA has conducted an independent review and evaluation of the USFS EA. Based on EPA’s evaluation of the USFS EA and current available information, an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is not required, and EPA is proposing a FONSI for its action discussed in detail below.

EPA Region 8, in accordance with the Fiscal Year 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 117-328), intends to award Community Grant funding to the Summit County for the Weber River Watershed Resilience Partnership Project (Proposed Action). The funding was allocated into a non-competitive EPA grant for Summit County, Utah. Summit County submitted a grant application to EPA on July 2nd, 2025, to implement the Proposed Action. The Proposed Action involves work entirely within the Upper Weber Watershed Restoration project area and mirrors the work in the Upper Weber Watershed Restoration EA. Prior to issuing this grant, EPA must comply with the NEPA environmental review requirements to inform its grant decision.

Project Description

Summit County, Utah, in collaboration with Utah State University (USU) and UWCNF, will conduct landscape-scale wildfire risk assessments and implement targeted fire mitigation strategies that are intended to protect critical watersheds and communities in the Weber River Watershed. The Weber River headwaters encompass approximately 78,000 acres of high fire-risk landscape, much of which is difficult to access and is managed by multiple jurisdictions. Increased development, long-term drought, and decades of fire suppression have increased wildfire risk. A major, high intensity fire could potentially endanger drinking water and critical infrastructure for 700,000 residents in Northern Utah. The Summit County Weber River Watershed Resilience Partnership Project aims to provide unified and coordinated, proactive landscape-scale watershed defense across multiple jurisdictional boundaries focused on treating approximately 300 acres of USFS lands within the Upper Weber Watershed Restoration EA project area.

The Proposed Action involves vegetation and fuel treatments (e.g., hand thinning, cut and pile, prescribed fire (broadcast and pile burning), and mastication) to reduce loads and continuity of woody fuel, restore healthy ecosystem conditions with a mix of tree ages and species, and improve watershed fire resilience. Fuel reduction treatments will be based on USU’s sediment discharge and fire-risk modeling, identifying areas of highest vulnerability. The purpose of the Upper Weber Watershed Restoration Project is to maintain and restore proper functioning conditions within the watershed for high quality and quantity of water, allow natural processes within the recommended wilderness area, including wildland fire use, and restore properly functioning conditions and maintain species composition and stand structure to meet watershed resiliency goals and address concerns with Wildland Urban Interface communities.

All supporting documents, along with the EA, are available for review on EPA's NEPA Compliance Documents website.