Public comment opens for Sitewide Environmental Impact Statement

The public comment period for the draft Supplemental Analysis for the Laboratory's 2005 Sitewide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) opens March 30. The comment period will extend 45 days, ending May 13.

Released by the Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration, the SWEIS lays out the planned programs for the Laboratory over a 10-year period and evaluates their environmental impacts. As part of the process, a supplement analysis of the SWEIS must be conducted at least every five years to determine whether the SWEIS must be modified, replaced or remains adequate.

Technical and management reviews of the draft Supplemental Analysis have been completed. Public involvement activities include briefings for community leaders and elected officials, letters to 3,000 neighbors advising them of the comment period, and two public information meetings. The meetings will be held April 14 at 1:30 and 6:30 p.m. at the Robert Livermore Community Center, 4444 East Ave., in Livermore. During the meetings the public may attend presentations explaining the document and its processes as well as ask questions.

The Supplemental Analysis process uses a number of sources and approaches to identify new and modified plans, projects or operations for the 2010-15 period, taking into consideration information that was not available in the 2005 SWEIS. An analysis of 19 likely or reasonably-foreseeable projects was performed and showed that, for all of the resource areas, the environmental impacts remain adequately addressed by the 2005 SWEIS.

A copy of the draft document is available on the NNSA Albuguerque Complex Website.

Members of the public may submit written comments by mail, in the box provided at the public informational meetings, and via SupplementAnalysisComments [at] doeal.gov (email).