What is a scoping meeting?

The purpose of the scoping process is to determine the scope of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to ensure that issues are identified early and properly studied.  The end result of scoping is to ensure that the draft EIS produced for public review and comment is thorough and balanced.  The scoping process should identify concerns of both the agencies and the affected public and should clearly define the environmental issues and alternatives to be examined in the EIS.  If there are important environmental or social impacts that the public wants considered, the time to raise these issues is at the scoping meeting.  If there are alternatives to be considered, the scoping meeting is the place to ask that they be analyzed.  If there are concepts for minimizing environmental harm that the public would like to see evaluated, these alternatives should be raised at the scoping meeting.  In this way, the EIS can be structured to better address public and agency concerns and help lead to better decisions in the end.

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