|
You are here: Home | Environmental Review Process and Documents ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW PROCESS AND DOCUMENTSThe National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process is intended to assist the Surface Transportation Board (the Board) and the public in identifying and assessing the potential environmental consequences of a proposed action before a final decision on the proposed action is made. The Board’s Section of Environmental Analysis (SEA) is responsible for ensuring that the Board complies with NEPA and related environmental statutes. SEA’s analysis is separate and distinct from any analyses the Applicant (ARRC) or MSB have done to date. The first stage of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process is scoping. Scoping is an open process for determining the scope of environmental issues to be addressed in the EIS. As part of the scoping process, SEA published in the Federal Register and mailed to the public on February 12, 2008, the Notice of Availability of Draft Scope of Study for the EIS, Notice of Scoping Meetings, and Request for Comments. The Draft Scope of Study for the EIS is available on this Web site. SEA also prepared and distributed to the public a fact sheet that introduced ARRC’s Port MacKenzie Rail Extension, announced SEA’s intent to prepare an EIS, requested comments, and gave notice of six public scoping meetings to citizens; elected officials; Federal, state, and local agencies, tribal organizations, and other potentially interested stakeholders. For more information on the public scoping meetings see the Public Involvement page. The scoping comment period concluded on March 21, 2008. The Final Scope of Study was published in the Federal Register on Friday, July 17, 2009 (74 FR 34859). The public may view the final scope on this Web site or, on STB’s main Web site at www.stb.dot.gov. SEA prepared a Draft EIS for the proposed Port MacKenzie Rail Extension. The Draft EIS addresses those environmental issues and concerns identified during the scoping process. It contains SEA’s preliminary recommendations for environmental mitigation measures. The Draft EIS was served on parties and delivered to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on March 16, 2010. SEA encourages the public and any interested parties to submit written comments on all aspects of the Draft EIS. SEA accepted comments on the Draft EIS during the 45-day public comment period, which began upon the U.S. EPA’s issuance of a notice of availability in the Federal Register on March 26, 2010 and closed on May 10, 2010. In addition to receiving written comments on the Draft EIS, SEA hosted six public meetings on the Draft EIS during which interested parties were given the opportunity to make oral comments in a formal setting and/or submit written comments. For more information on how comments were submitted on the Draft EIS, and the public meetings on the Draft EIS, see the Public Involvement page. SEA will consider all comments on the Draft EIS in preparing the Final EIS, which will include responses to all substantive comments, SEA’s final conclusions on potential impacts, and SEA’s final recommendations. In reaching its decision in this case, the Board will take into account the Draft EIS, the Final EIS, and all environmental comments that are received. Port MacKenzie EIS milestones and documents Documents Available Now:
Documents Available in the Future:
|