New Melones Lake Area Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement Final Scoping Summary Report U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region Central California Area Office June 2007 This page intentionally left blank. Summary The Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, is preparing a resource management plan/environmental impact statement (RMP/EIS) for Reclamation-managed lands located at New Melones Lake in Calaveras and Tuolumne Counties. The New Melones Lake Area is managed by Reclamation’s Central California Area Office (CCAO), part of its Mid-Pacific Region. The RMP/EIS will be prepared in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to evaluate contemporary resources and recreation needs for the New Melones Lake Area, while ensuring the Eastside Division of the Central Valley Project continues to meet its authorized purposes of flood control, water supply, power, recreation, water quality, and fish and wildlife enhancement. Public involvement for the New Melones Lake Area RMP/EIS is being conducted in five phases: • Public scoping prior to NEPA analysis to determine the scope of issues and alternatives to be addressed in the RMP/EIS; • Public outreach via project updates, a project Web site, news releases, and newspaper advertisements; • Collaboration with Federal, State, local, and tribal governments; • Public review and comment on the draft alternatives developed to frame the analysis of the RMP/EIS evaluation; and • Public review and comment on the draft RMP/EIS, which analyzes likely environmental effects and identifies Reclamation’s preferred alternative. This report documents the results of the first three phases of the public involvement process. Public Scoping Activities Scoping allows agencies, stakeholders, and interested parties to identify or suggest resources to be evaluated, issues that may require environmental review, reasonable alternatives to consider, and potential mitigation (ways to reduce or avoid environmental impacts) if significant adverse effects are identified. Scoping also allows Reclamation to clearly set the parameters of the environmental review process by determining which issues will be addressed in the environmental documentation provides a rationale for those determinations. Lastly, scoping provides decision makers with insight into the analyses that the public believes should be considered as part of the RMP/EIS process. The formal public scoping process for the New Melones Lake Area RMP/EIS began on December 18, 2006, with the publication of the notice of intent (NOI) in the Federal New Melones Lake Resource Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement June 2007 Final Scoping Summary Report S-1 Register. The NOI initiated the public scoping process and notified the public of Reclamation’s intent to develop an RMP/EIS for the New Melones Lake Area. The public was notified of the scoping meetings by several media. The project Web site at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/ccao/field_offices/new_melones/index.html, provides background information about the project, a public involvement timeline and calendar, maps and photos of the planning area, and copies of public information documents, such as the NOI and project update. A project update was mailed on January 22, 2007, to 791 individuals from the public, agencies, and local organizations. The project update introduced Reclamation and the RMP/EIS planning process, provided a project milestones timeline, and suggested methods for public involvement. Finally, Reclamation advertised the meetings in several area newspapers, including the Stockton Record, the Manteca Bulletin, the Sonora Union Democrat, and the Calaveras Enterprise. During the last week of January 2007, public meetings were held in three locations within the project planning area. A fourth meeting for agency officials was held at the beginning of the week. Seventy-seven people attended these meetings, which are described in greater detail in Section 1.3.5. Public Scoping Results Four hundred and two written comments were submitted by 148 commentors as of March 19, 2007, and have been incorporated into this Scoping Summary Report. Of these, 29 were submitted by government agencies, 109 were submitted by nongovernmental organizations, and 264 were submitted by members of the public. Each submittal was read and evaluated to determine discrete comments and was logged and categorized by the issues and concerns raised. All comments will be considered in alternative formulation and project planning. Issue Summary Most comments focused on access (20 percent), biological resources (12 percent), facilities (12 percent), and recreation (20 percent). Although not tallied with the written scoping comments, verbal comments received during the scoping meetings and through consultations and discussions with individuals, organizations, and agencies were compared and considered in the scoping evaluation. Section 3 contains a numeric breakdown of the comments received, a summary of the issues identified in those comments, and a list of the comments received. New Melones Lake Resource Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement June 2007 Final Scoping Summary Report S-2 Future Steps Reclamation will use the scoping report to evaluate the issues raised by the public and agencies and to organize them into issue statements that can be applied to the next phase of planning (see Appendix A: Planning Issues). The next phase of Reclamation’s planning process is to develop management alternatives, which will be analyzed in a draft RMP/EIS. Although Reclamation welcomes public input at any time during the planning process, the next official public comment period will begin when the draft alternatives are published, which is anticipated for the fall of 2007. A further opportunity to comment on the proposed project will occur when the draft RMP/EIS is released for public review and comment. Release dates and comment periods for both of these events will be published in project updates and displayed on the project Web site. Availability of the draft RMP/EIS and draft alternatives will be published in the Federal Register, along with meeting schedules. New Melones Lake Resource Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement June 2007 Final Scoping Summary Report S-3 This page intentionally left blank. New Melones Lake Resource Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement June 2007 Final Scoping Summary Report S-4 Contents Page Summary.........................................................................................................................S-1 1. Introduction............................................................................................................1 1.1 Overview of the National Environmental Policy Act and Public Involvement Process ....................................................................................1 1.2 Purpose of and Need for the RMP/EIS........................................................2 1.3 Description of the Scoping Process .............................................................3 1.3.1 Notice of Intent ................................................................................3 1.3.2 Project Web Site ..............................................................................5 1.3.3 Project Update..................................................................................5 1.3.4 News Release and Newspaper Advertisement.................................5 1.3.5 Scoping Meetings ............................................................................5 1.3.6 Mailing List......................................................................................6 1.4 Agency Coordination...................................................................................6 2. Meeting Overview..................................................................................................7 3. Comment Summary.............................................................................................10 3.1 Method of Comment Collection and Analysis...........................................10 3.2 Summary of Public Comments Received ..................................................11 3.2.1 Comments by Issue........................................................................11 3.3 Comments Received ..................................................................................15 4. Future Steps..........................................................................................................26 4.1 Summary of Future Steps and Public Participation Opportunities............26 4.2 Contact Information...................................................................................27 New Melones Lake Resource Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement June 2007 Final Scoping Summary Report i Figures Page 1-1 Project Planning Area ..............................................................................................4 4-1 Public Participation Milestones .............................................................................28 Tables Page 1-1 Meeting Schedule and Attendance ..........................................................................6 2-1 Verbal Comment/Question Overview......................................................................8 3-1 Summary of Comments .........................................................................................12 Appendices A Planning Issue Statements B Public Involvement New Melones Lake Resource