The State Clearinghouse (SCH) coordinates the distribution of environmental documents prepared under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to State agencies for their review and comment. These environmental documents include Negative Declarations (ND), Mitigated Negative Declarations (MND), Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs) and various notices.

For more information about the requirements and the filing process, refer to the CEQA Guidelines and the State Clearinghouse Handbook.

For more information about the more than 100,000 documents previously filed with the SCH, search the CEQAnet database. In addition, the SCH Newsletter, posted twice a month, summarizes the documents processed by the SCH. You may also view annual document submission statistics for the past few years.

We accept deliveries Monday-Friday (excluding holidays) between 9:00AM – 5:30PM. Complete environmental document submissions (all required forms and copies) must arrive by 12:00 PM to begin review on that day. Exceptions are NOEs and NODs, which are accepted and posted as long as they're received by 5:30. Complete documents received after 12:00PM will begin review the next business day.

To prevent delays in processing, please COLLATE and BIND all environmental document submissions to the State Clearinghouse.

Summary of Document Submission Requirements:

You may download and complete certain CEQA notification forms using Acrobat Reader (available as a free download from Adobe Systems). The completed form can then be printed and mailed to the State Clearinghouse. To save the completed form to your local drive, you may have to purchase an Acrobat package beyond the Reader.

Notice of Completion (NOC) – Informs the reviewers that a Draft EIR is complete (CEQA Guidelines, Section 15085). This form also serves as a project cover sheet for all environmental documents submitted to the SCH. One copy of the NOC must accompany the required 15 copies of the EIR submitted to OPR. We recommend you complete this document for the ND/MND, Notice of Preparation, Notice of Intent, Environmental Assessments, Environmental Impact Statements, Early Consultations, and Tribal Compact Environmental Evaluations for accurate indexing in the CEQAnet Database.

Notice of Determination (NOD) – Lead and responsible agencies are required to notify OPR and/or the county clerk when they make a determination to approve a project subject to CEQA (CEQA Guidelines, Sections 15075 and 15094). There are fees associated with this form so we recommend that you refer to the Fish and Game Fee Memo 2007.

Notice of Exemption (NOE) – Informs OPR and/or the county clerk that the lead agency has determined that a project is exempt from CEQA review (CEQA Guidelines, Section 15062).

Notice of Preparation (NOP) - Informs the reviewers of the lead agency’s intent to prepare an EIR (CEQA Guidelines, Section 15082). We recommend that 1) a Notice of Completion Form accompany the NOP for accurate indexing in the CEQAnet database and that 2) lead agencies send 15 hard copies of any attachments, initial studies, maps, or any other documentation describing the project.

Sample Summary Fillable Form - 15 copies of this document may be included when a Lead Agency is submitting electronic copies of environmental impact reports, negative declarations, mitigated negative declarations, or notices of preparation to the SCH. The SCH will still accept other summaries, such as an EIR summary prepared pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15123, attached to the electronic copies of the document.

Shortened Review Request - Under certain circumstances, a shortened review may be granted (refer to Public Resources Code Section 21091 and CEQA Guidelines Appendix K ). Send one copy of this form to accompany the 15 hardcopies and the NOC. Prior to requesting a shortened review, we recommend that you contact a planner in the State Clearinghouse.

CEQA Initial Study Checklist can be found at the Association of Environmental Professionals (AEP) website. It may be downloaded in either Word or WordPerfect formats.