In October 2018, the Secretaries of Interior, Commerce and Energy, and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works received a memorandum from the President directing the agencies to develop a schedule to complete the EIS and associated biological opinion by 2020, and coordinate the revised schedule with the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) for consideration by December 2018. In response to the Presidential Memorandum, the CRSO EIS co-lead agencies and Department of Commerce submitted a coordinated, revised schedule to CEQ that allows the co-lead agencies to produce an EIS that complies with the National Environmental Policy Act and meets the memorandum’s intent. The co-lead agencies revised project details to reach the new completion date, with signing of the Records of Decisions in September 2020. The final revised schedule was provided to cooperating agencies, states and tribes and posted on the public EIS website.
The co-lead agencies will continue to conduct an open and transparent process while continuing to provide project updates and information to build public understanding of the Columbia River System and the NEPA process.