Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
(see Section 10.4 for a description of the background on the EIS) and the
DOPAA was included in the scoping material. The original 26 alternatives
were screened down to 4 slated for detailed evaluation in the draft EIS based
on comparison with evaluation criteria. Unfortunately, the environmental cri-
teria resulted primarily from technical scoping, such as traffic patterns, engi-
neering feasibility, cost, water quality, and air quality and the initial criteria
were developed prior to social scoping, neglecting some issues very important
to the neighborhood stakeholders (some of whom were Washington insiders,
influential and experienced in affecting government decisions). Once the
DOPAA was disseminated as part of the scoping material, the lack of social
scoping input to the alternative development and screening process became
apparent and the alternative process was reopened to include the issues raised
as part of social scoping. But by releasing the DOPAA as part of scoping, the
issues were identified early and could be addressed during the draft environ-
mental impact analysis process. This was far superior to revising the alter-
native identification, initial evaluation, and screening for the first time in the
final document based on comments from the draft, thus potentiality requiring
a supplemental Draft EIS. Even worse the concerns could have been brought
up in litigation following the ROD.
If conditions such as the complexity, controversy, broad scale, and potential
for significant environmental impacts warrant an enhanced scoping process,
the notification of the environmental impact analysis can also be expanded.
A common enhancement is to proactively identify stakeholders that could
be affected by any of the alternatives or affect the decisions and encourage
them to participate in the process. This can include contacting government
entities directly and even requesting they be the participating agencies and
similarly directly engage nongovernmental organizations such as neighbor-
hood or watershed associations and interest groups. The noticing can also
be enhanced by expanded use of websites and social media. As productive
and efficient as social media can be, it must be used with forethought as part
of the environmental analysis public outreach. If the key or majority of the
stakeholders are not experienced and comfortable with the tools, it can be a
wasted effort and lead to invalid assumptions as to the concerns of the stake-
holders and the dissemination of information.
The solicitation of stakeholder input is the area of greatest potential scop-
ing enhancement. Basic scoping is predominantly a static and one-way
exercise with the proponent presenting their purpose and need to a poorly
attended scoping meeting, then taking the feedback they hear and working
in internal isolation to produce a draft environmental analysis document.
Making the process more dynamic and stimulating greater stakeholder par-
ticipation can begin during the scoping meeting. The standard format of lec-
ture and questions can be expanded by preceding the formal meeting with
a workshop or poster session with a table or station set up for each theme
of anticipated interest such as background, purpose and need, alternatives,
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