SBCT Final EIS - Govsupport.us

APPENDIX DRESPONSES TO COMMENTS ON THEDRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTSTATEMENTThe DEIS was available for public review and comment from July 20, 2007 through October 30,2007. The document (hard copy or CD) was distributed to recipients primarily in Alaska, Colorado,and Hawaii. It also was available on the Internet for review or downloading. During the review period,a variety of agencies, elected officials, businesses, organizations, and individuals submitted letters,facsimiles, and e-mails containing comments on the DEIS. In addition, nine public meetingswere held in Alaska (2), Colorado (2), and Hawaii (5) where people provided verbal statements thatwere recorded. The following section summarize the public’s comments on the DEIS and the Army’sresponses to those comments.D.1 SUMMARY OF COMMENTS ON THE DEISTable D–1 through Table D–3 below present public involvement at the nine meetings held during thecomment period for the DEIS. The number of attendees reflects the count of people who signed in.The number listed as oral comments reflects the total number of times statements were made at themicrophone, and not the number of different individual speakers. Several individuals spoke more thanonce per meeting, and/or at more than one meeting.In addition to comments collected at the public meetings, 228 comments were received by mail, facsimile,and email. Of those, 212 pertained to the Proposed Action in Hawaii, 11 pertained to the ProposedAction in Colorado, two were not location-specific, and three were from Federal agenciescommenting on the project as a whole.D.2 ANALYSIS OF COMMENTSRespondents submitted a variety of comments on the DEIS. The Army reviewed the comments andarranged them into groups with comment concerns. Then, a primary comment statement was preparedfor each group of comments. Finally, a response was generated for each comment statement. Overall,the comments primarily focused on the NEPA process, alternatives, biological resources, cultural resources,water resources, wildfire, air quality, and cumulative effects, though comments in other areaswere received, and the Army has responded to them.Table D–4, which follows the section on comments and responses, identifies the individuals, businesses,organizations, and agencies that responded to the DEIS. The table lists each respondent alphabeticallyand identifies the comment statement or statements attributed to the letter, e-mails, facsimile,or verbal statement.The identifiers for the comment statements are associated with each comment statement in the sectionimmediately preceding the table. The actual letters, e-mails, facsimiles, and transcripts of verbalstatements are available for public review in the administrative record.February 2008 D–1 2/25th SBCT Final EIS