Overview and Initiating the Environmental Impact Analysis and Assessment - Environmental Impact Analysis: Process and Methods - page 128

concerns and in some cases fears; however, it is generally less useful in pro-
viding the environmental analysis team with input on how to address the
concerns and fears. The “how” is sometimes more productively addressed
as part of technical scoping.
4.3.2.2 TechnicalScoping
There are three primary objectives of technical scoping to achieve the ulti-
mate goal of adequately assessing the nature and extent of impacts to each
potentially affected environmental resource (Morgan 2001):
r From a technical perspective (i.e., without the bias of potential direct
impacts on the stakeholder), identify the areas of potential impact.
r Identify the scientific studies necessary to pose and test environ-
mental impact hypotheses.
r Select the methods to conduct the studies that are necessary.
Two types of stakeholders are typically the dominant participants in
technical scoping: academic and natural resource or regulatory agency
personnel. In contrast to participants in social scoping, the technical scop-
ing community is frequently involved with scoping for many projects, in
many different areas, and over long periods. Experts in a type of action
(e.g., power generation, wastewater treatment, housing) will participate in
the scoping for numerous similar projects, frequently on a national scale.
Similarly, technical scoping participants with extensive local knowledge
or responsibility (e.g., member of planning boards, watershed association
members, agency personnel) will likely participate in scoping in any and
all projects within their geographic area of interest regardless of the type
of proposed action (Carnes 1993). It is often useful to organize these stake-
holders in a technical advisory committee (TAC) as a parallel to the CAC
discussed earlier. The input from these technical stakeholders is based on
their experience and background knowledge of the environmental condi-
tions in the study area, the type of action proposed, and the basic science
related to the issues.
The members of the TAC can provide important inputs based on their com-
bined experience. Sometimes the interaction of the “experts” can generate
ideas and information that would not surface in a one-on-one consultation
with the experts. However inclusion of even a well-qualified, committed, and
unbiased TAC does not relieve the environmental analysis interdisciplinary
team of their responsibility. They must work through their internal scop-
ing, including development of an impact prediction conceptual model (see
Section 5.3.1 for description and discussion of the model) to understand the
interaction of existing conditions and alternatives (Figure 4.1) and formulate
impact hypotheses. It is this process by the analysis team that identifies the