You are invited to review and provide comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement and the Preferred Alternative for the operations, maintenance and configuration of the Columbia River System, comprised of 14 federal dam and reservoir projects in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the draft EIS documents the review of potential actions and discloses the environmental effects of taking those actions.
The review and comment period opened on February 28, 2020 with the publication of the NEPA Notice of Availability in the Federal Register.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration developed the draft EIS in response to the need to review and update management of the System, including evaluating impacts to resources in the context of new information and changed conditions in the Columbia River basin and in response to a court order by the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.
The Preferred Alternative detailed in the draft EIS is a suite of operational, maintenance and structural measures to allow the agencies to meet their congressionally authorized purposes, the Purpose and Need statement and EIS objectives, including those to benefit species listed as threatened and endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The agencies will respond to substantive comments on the draft EIS in the final EIS to be released this summer.