Written Comments and Responses

This chapter reproduces the comment letters received regarding the August 5, 1998 Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR). Each comment letter is succeeded by responses. The responses emphasize issues related to the adequacy of the EIR in identifying and analyzing the possible environmental impacts of the project and possible approaches for avoiding or mitigating these impacts.

Some comments include issues that are not related to the adequacy or contents of the DEIR. Detailed responses have not been prepared for these comments, but they are acknowledged in this document. Because all of the comments received regarding the DEIR are reproduced herein, they are part of the Final EIR for this project. As such, these comments will be considered by project decision-makers as they decide whether to approve the proposed project or one of the alternatives evaluated in this report.

Comment letters from agencies are included first, followed by letters from individuals. Each agency or individual has been assigned a letter (e.g., "A"), and each comment has been assigned a number. Therefore, a unique descriptor, consisting of a double letter and number, applies to each comment and response. For example, "response A1" refers to the response to the first comment from agency A. These descriptors appear on each letter to indicate what text is considered part of each comment.

In responding to some of the comment letters, it was necessary to make revisions to the text of the DEIR. In these instances, the page number where the text is revised has been provided. Additions to the DEIR text are shown in underline, while deletions to the text are noted by strike-through lines.

A glossary of terms and a list of acronyms used in this document are provided in Chapter 6.