Comment Opportunities

Public and agency involvement is critical throughout the preparation of the EIS. A 45-day public scoping comment period will begin when the Notice of Intent (NOI) is published in the Federal Register, which is currently scheduled for August 2009. Public scoping comments on the EIS will be accepted from September 16, 2009 until October 31, 2009.

The public scoping meeting for the EIS is scheduled for Wednesday, September 16, 2009 from 5:00pm to 7:30pm at the Sunset Elementary School gymnasium, 12824 West 12th Avenue, Airway Heights, Washington 99001. This public scoping meeting will also serve the purpose of a scoping meeting for the Traffic Study which is being prepared for the proposed project, as required by Spokane County. For more information regarding the public scoping meeting, please click here.

Also, a 60-day public comment period on the Draft EIS will begin when the Notice of Availability (NOA) is published in the Federal Register. The NOA is currently scheduled to be published in the Federal Register in December 2009. Comments received during the comment period will be considered during preparation of a Final EIS.

Interested parties can comment by:

• Submitting a comment using this website’s comment form,
• Mailing or hand-delivering written comments to:
  
  EDAW AECOM
  EIS Consultant for Bureau of Indian Affairs | Lead Agency
  Chris Moore
  1420 Kettner Boulevard, Suite 500
  San Diego, CA 92101

Note: Comments received after the conclusion of the public comment period for the Draft EIS will become part of the public record but will not be considered during preparation of a Final EIS.
Substantive comments will be specifically responded to in the Final EIS. For a comment to warrant response, it must address the adequacy of the analyses, issues, alternatives or process; or it must raise questions to be answered by the decision-maker; or it must contain an informed opinion about the adequacy of the DEIS analysis.

The review of public comments is not a vote-counting process. All comments carry the same weight, regardless of whether they are expressed once or in a hundred separate e-mail messages or letters. Petitions and form comments are counted as single responses and carry no more weight than individual comments.