Haw. Code R. § 11-200.1-20 - Public review and response requirements for draft environmental assessments

(a) This section shall apply only if a proposing agency or an approving agency anticipates a FONSI determination for a proposed action and the proposing agency or the applicant has completed the draft EA requirements of sections 11-200.1-18 and 11-200-19,

(b) Unless mandated otherwise by statute, the period for public review and for submitting written comments shall be thirty days from the date of publication of the draft EA in the bulletin. Written comments shall be received by or postmarked to the proposing agency, or in the case of applicants, to either the approving agency or applicant within the thirty-day period. Any comments outside of the thirty-day period need not be responded to nor considered in the final EA.

(c) For agency actions, the proposing agency shall, and for applicant actions, the applicant shall: respond in the final EA in the manner prescribed in this section to all substantive comments received or postmarked during the statutorily mandated review period, incorporate comments into the final EA as appropriate, and include the comments and responses in the final EA. In deciding whether a written comment is substantive, the proposing agency or applicant shall give careful consideration to the validity, significance, and relevance of the comment to the scope, analysis, or process of the EA, bearing in mind the purpose of this chapter and chapter 343, HRS. Written comments deemed by the proposing agency or applicant as nonsubstantive and to which no response was provided shall be clearly indicated.

(d) Proposing agencies and applicants shall respond in the final EA to all substantive comments in one of two ways, or a combination of both, so long as each substantive comment has clearly received a response:

(1) By grouping comment responses under topic headings and addressing each substantive comment raised by an individual commenter under that topic heading by issue. When grouping comments by topic and issue, the names of commenters who raised an issue under a topic heading shall be clearly identified in a distinctly labeled section with that topic heading. All substantive comments within a single comment letter must be addressed, but may be addressed throughout the applicable topic areas with the commenter identified in each applicable topic area. All comments, except those described in subsection (e), must be appended in full to the final EA; or

(2) By providing a separate and distinct response to each comment clearly identifying the commenter and the comment receiving a response for each comment letter submitted. All comments, except those described in subsection (e), must either be included with the response or appended in full to the final EA.

(e) For comments that are form letters or petitions, that contain identical or near-identical language, and that raise the same issues on the same topic:

(1) The response may be grouped under subsection(d)(1) with the response to other comments under the same topic and issue with all commenters identified in the distinctly labeled section identifying commenters by topic; or

(2) A single response may be provided that addresses all substantive comments within the form letter or petition and that includes a distinct section listing the individual commenters who submitted the form letter or petition. At least one representative sample of the form letter or petition shall be appended to the final EA; provided that, if a commenter adds a distinct substantive comment to a form letter or petition, that comment must be responded to pursuant to subsection (d).

(f) In responding to substantive written comments, proposing agencies and applicants shall endeavor to resolve conflicts or inconsistencies in information and address specific environmental concerns identified by the commenter, providing a response that is commensurate with the substantive content of those comments. The response shall describe the disposition of significant environmental issues raised (for example, the response may point to revisions to the proposed action to mitigate anticipated impacts or objections raised in the comment, or may refute all or part of the comment). In particular, the issues raised when the proposing agency's or applicant's position is at variance with recommendations and objections raised in the comments shall be addressed in detail, giving reasons why specific comments and suggestions were not accepted, and factors of overriding importance warranting an override of the suggestions. The response shall indicate changes that have been made to the text of the draft EA.

(g) An addendum document to a draft EA shall reference the original draft EA it attaches to and shall comply with all applicable filing, public review, and comment requirements set forth in subchapters 4 and 9.

Notes

Haw. Code R. § 11-200.1-20

[Eff AUG 9 2019] (Auth: HRS §§ 343-3, 343-5, 343-6) (Imp: HRS §§ 343-3, 343-5, 343-6)