Draft EIS Public Comment Analysis Report

The National Park Service has analyzed the comments received during the public comment period for the Oil and Gas Management Plan/Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Big South Fork National River and Recreation and Obed Wild and Scenic River. At this time, we would like to share information with you about the comment process and its results through the report available on this site.

During the comment period (June 15 – August 16, 2011), which included 5 public comment meetings, 24 pieces of correspondence were received from individual members of the public, other agencies, organizations, and tribes. A correspondence is the entire document received from a commenter. It can be in the form of a letter, email, or an entry made in the National Park Service Planning, Environment, and Public Comment system. This system was then used to identify individual comments, which are a portion of the text within a correspondence that addresses a single subject. Each of the 95 individual comments identified was assigned a code in the Planning, Environment, and Public Comment system, which allows the National Park Service to group comments based on a common subject. We reviewed the comments to identify those considered 'substantive', and grouped all substantive comments by similar themes, which were summarized with a concern statement.

While all comments were read and considered and will be used to help create the final plan/ environmental impact statement, only those determined to be substantive are typically analyzed for response from the National Park Service. The National Park Service is currently working on responses to the substantive concerns, and will publish them as part of the final plan/environmental impact statement, which is anticipated for release in the summer of 2012.

For additional information, please feel free to contact Tom Blount, Big South Fork National River and Recreation and Obed Wild and Scenic River Chief of Resources, at 423-569-9778.

Document Content:

Draft Non-federal Oil and Gas Management Plan / EIS Public Comment Analysis Report   (4.9 MB, PDF file) Disclaimer: Links within the above document(s) were valid as of the date published. Note: Some of the files may be in PDF format and can be viewed using the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. You may download a free copy of from Adobe Systems.