N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 6 § 617.8

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 45, November 2, 2024

Section 617.8 - Scoping

(a) The primary goals of scoping are to focus the EIS on potentially significant adverse impacts and to eliminate consideration of those impacts that are irrelevant or not significant . Scoping is required for all EISs (except for supplemental EISs), and may be initiated by the lead agency or the project sponsor.

(b) The project sponsor must submit a draft scope that contains the items identified in paragraphs (e) (1) through (5) of this section to the lead agency. The lead agency must provide a copy of the draft scope to all involved agencies, and make it available to any individual or interested agency that has expressed an interest in writing to the lead agency.

(c) Involved agencies should provide written comments reflecting their concerns, jurisdictions and needs for environmental analysis sufficient to ensure that the EIS will be adequate to support their SEQR findings. The lead agency must include such informational needs in the final scope provided they are reasonable. Failure of an involved agency to participate in the scoping process will not delay completion of the final written scope.

(d) Scoping must include an opportunity for public participation. The lead agency may either provide a period of time for the public to review and provide written comments on a draft scope or provide for public input through the use of meetings, exchanges of written material, or other means.

(e) The lead agency must provide a final written scope to the project sponsor, all involved agencies and any individual that has expressed an interest in writing to the lead agency within 60 days of its receipt of a draft scope. The final written scope should include:

(1) a brief description of the proposed action;

(2) the potentially significant adverse impacts identified both in Part 3 of the environmental assessment form and as a result of consultation with the other involved agencies and the public, including an identification of those particular aspect(s) of the environmental setting that may be impacted;

(3) the extent and quality of information needed for the preparer to adequately address each impact, including an identification of relevant existing information, and required new information, including the required methodology(ies) for obtaining new information;

(4) an initial identification of mitigation measures;

(5) the reasonable alternatives to be considered;

(6) an identification of the information or data that should be included in an appendix rather than the body of the draft EIS; and

(7) a brief description of the prominent issues that were considered in the review of the environmental assessment form or raised during scoping, or both, and determined to be neither relevant nor environmentally significant or that have been adequately addressed in a prior environmental review and the reasons why those issues were not included in the final scope.

(f) All relevant issues should be raised before the issuance of a final written scope. Any agency or person raising issues after that time must provide to the lead agency and project sponsor a written statement that identifies:

(1) the nature of the information;

(2) the importance and relevance of the information to a potential significant impact;

(3) the reason(s) why the information was not identified during scoping and why it should be included at this stage of the review.

(g) The project sponsor of this section into the draft EIS

(h) If the lead agency fails to provide a final written scope within 60 calendar days of its receipt of a draft scope, the project sponsor may prepare and submit a draft EIS consistent with the submitted draft scope.

N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. Tit. 6 § 617.8

Amended New York State Register July 18, 2018/Volume XL, Issue 29, eff.1/1/2019