Public Scoping

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is designed to ensure that the environmental consequences of major federal decisions are known and available to the public before decisions are made and actions are undertaken.  Public scoping assists in the environmental review process by providing a means to inform the public about activities that involve a federal action and solicit their comments regarding the proposed action. 

A Notice of Intent (NOI), an official legal notice published in the Federal Register, announces that a federal agency is beginning the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and often includes information about the public scoping process. The Lincoln County Land Act Groundwater Development and Utility Right-of-Way Project EIS NOI was published in the Federal Register on March 31, 2006 (Federal Register Volume 71, No. 62).  The NOI encouraged the public and other federal, state, local, and tribal governments to participate in assisting the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in identifying issues to be considered for evaluation in the EIS. 

Scoping Period

A thirty day public scoping period (March 31, 2006-May 1, 2006) was provided for submission of comments.  A Project Fact Sheet and comment form was provided to the public through the project mailing list and public meetings. 

Scoping Meetings

Six open house meetings were held throughout Nevada between April 11, 2006 and April 18, 2006.  The purpose of the meeting was to inform the public that a right-of-way application was filed and the EIS process had begun.  Public meetings are an opportunity for the EIS team to meet the public, provide information on the project, explain the EIS process and laws/regulations that play an integral part of completing the EIS, and to provide an opportunity for the public to ask questions.  At each meeting, the scoping process was explained and fact sheets with comment forms were provided. 

The public scoping meetings were held in Reno, Las Vegas, Baker, Caliente, Alamo, and Mesquite, Nevada.  The BLM distributed press releases announcing the dates, locations, and times of scoping meetings to local and regional print and broadcast media.  The press release was sent to newspapers as well as radio and television stations for airing of public service announcements.  Paid legal notices indicating the dates, locations, and times of scoping meetings were published in the local newspapers for each of the cities listed above. 

Lincoln County Land Act Groundwater Development and Utility Right-of-Way Project EIS Final Scoping Summary Report

The purpose of the scoping report is to summarize the issues that were brought to the attention of the BLM during the scoping period and to explain to what extent each issue will be carried through the analysis.  

During the public scoping period, BLM received 103 responses (defined as one completed comment form, e-mail, fax, letter, or website submittal).  Some responses contained multiple comments.  Within the 95 responses, BLM identified a total of 253 comments.  The general categories of issues that were brought forward were:

• The NEPA Process: 89 comments regarding how the EIS adheres to NEPA
• Social Resources: 48 comments regarding impacts to the human or built environment
• Physical and Biological Resources: 116 comments regarding impacts to air quality, biological resources, geologic resources, soil resources, and water resources.

The Lincoln County Land Act Groundwater Development and Utility Right-of-Way Project EIS Final Scoping Summary Report was made available to the public in September, 2006.  The report gives detailed information about public scoping efforts made by the BLM, agency coordination, scoping comment analysis, an explanation of significant issues to be considered in the EIS, and a summary of future steps.  The appendices give detailed information about the specific comments received, the Federal Register NOI, the BLM media release and distribution list, and the public scoping announcement mailers.