... The NEPA doesn't require implementation of the NEPA process for actions no longer proposed and not taken.
...
Dale B. Dalrymple
Implementing wag bags was Alternative 5 of a NEPA Environmental Assessment. There's no debate about whether or not it should be a NEPA process, it was. After waiting a couple years they removed the toilets as an "emergency" and then implemented wag bags without a decision document. That's what happened. The process was aborted. Now Inyo is claiming that they didn't need to finish NEPA because wag bags are only a "voluntary program." Because they didn't finish NEPA, they can't issue a Forest Service Order making it official. So all the ideas about enforcing wag bags with numbers and tickets and whatnot is out the door. The only thing they can get someone for is littering. Any effort to enforce wag bags would mean it wasn't "voluntary."
We're getting way off topic for Half Dome. This forum has a long thread dedicated to this issue ...
You have a long history of misrepresenting the NEPA process here. Properly understanding NEPA relates to actions in the HSHA thread, the solar-toilet thread and possible responses to this thread.
For example, when the FS withdrew it's intent to replace the solar-toilets, the NEPA process that had been required by the solar toilet proposal ceased to exist. That an alternate discussion point in a cancelled NEPA process is latter implemented does not reconstitute the cancelled NEPA process. For example, every NEPA process includes a do nothing alternative for discussion, but adopting that alternative does not require the completion of the NEPA process for an cancelled proposal. So an action's consideration as a discussion topic in a cancelled NEPA process does not demonstrate that a NEPA process is required for it's implementation. Nor does the NEPA process for a canceled proposal satisfy NEPA requirements for any thing else. Also, the EA for the solar toilet proposal describes a situation that no longer exists. You are beating a dead horse.
Back to the general process under NEPA. A different proposal or action than the proposal in the cancelled NEPA process requires a new evaluation of whether the action, now appearing as a proposal, requires a NEPA process. If you wish to support that, it's time to start the justification of the NEPA process for the current action.
If you are interested in an action and so desire a NEPA process to promote discussion and satisfy NEPA requirements for the action, find an agency with the budget for, intent to implement and the belief in the legality, practicality, ... and desirability of the action. Then you may get a NEPA process. But the NEPA process doesn't start until there is an agency that has the action planned and budgeted (that agency budget must also include the cost of the NEPA process itself). That NEPA process won't satisfy the NEPA requirements for any action but the proposed action that initiated that NEPA process. NEPA isn't a planning process. It's a public comment on agency proposals process. NEPA only provides for public comment between planning and implementation. If you wish to use NEPA as a tool, learn what it does. And you'll recognize when others misuse it in these threads.
Dale B. Dalrymple
