Comment Opportunities

Public and agency involvement is critical throughout the preparation of the EIS. A public scoping comment period was initiated when the Notice of Intent (NOI) was published in the Federal Register on August 27, 2009. Public scoping comments on the EIS were accepted until October 31, 2009 (public scoping period exceeded 45-days).

A 60-day public comment period on the Draft EIS will begin when the Notice of Availability (NOA) is published in the Federal Register. Publication of the NOA is anticipated to occur in late-2011. Comments received during the comment period will be considered during preparation of a Final EIS.

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.