The CRSO EIS co-lead agencies (the Corps, BPA, and Reclamation) implemented a robust public scoping process to provide ample opportunity for the public to understand how the System currently operates and identify issues of concern to be addressed in the EIS. The agencies invited the public to provide assistance to help define the issues, concerns, and the scope of alternatives to be addressed. The Notice of Intent to prepare the EIS provided a summary of the intent of the EIS, established a schedule of public meetings, and provided points of contact for each of the co-lead agencies.
The co-lead agencies held 16 public meetings and two webinars across the region during public scoping to allow the public to ask questions in person and contribute their comments and ideas on what should be included in the EIS. The co-lead agencies received over 400,000 comments.
The three agencies acknowledge the effort extended by the public across the region, country, and internationally to provide the thoughtful and deliberate input summarized in this report. Each comment letter was read by the study team, discussed, and broken into categories based on if it was a proposed action to take, resource to consider, method to use in the evaluation, or issue to address in the scope of the analysis. Comments were then categorized within this Scoping Summary to reflect the types of comments received. Each letter submitted was helpful and used to inform the scope of the study and the nature of the analysis.