Environmental Compliance

Scope and Scoping

When it is determined that an agency's regulatory or program proposal has potential to significantly affect the quality of the human environment, the agency must prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS). Before doing so, the public (including relevant Federal and local agencies) must be informed of the agency's intent to prepare an EIS (40 CFR  1506.6). Through the agency's coordination, the public provides comments to help determine the " scope" of the EIS. The scope consists of the range of actions, alternatives, and impacts to be considered in an EIS (40 CFR • 1508.25).

"Scoping" is the process through which the agency and the public identify alternatives and issues to be considered in an EIS. The process can occur formally and informally through meetings, conversations, or written comments from individuals and groups, and evolves over a period of time. Generally, informal preliminary scoping is done within an agency and formal scoping is managed as a public process.

Scoping is a critical step in EIS development because it helps to define the direction of the analysis process. (Scoping can be useful in the preparation of an environmental assessment (EA) and a finding of no significant impact (FONSI), but is not required.) The primary purpose of the public's involvement through the formal scoping process is to help the agency obtain information needed in identifying the EIS's focus and making informed decisions. The public scoping process can help to improve relationships, understanding, and rapport, and can result in at least a consensus, if not the endorsement and support, of the interested and affected public.