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This report serves as an information source to NOAA and the cooperating agencies (US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)). It will inform their determinations of the range of issues and alternatives to be addressed in the Draft EIS. This report will further inform decision-making by the permitting agencies of whether or not to issue the referenced permits for the proposed POA commercial-scale finfish aquaculture facility. The comments received during the scoping period, guided by 40 CFR 1501.7 of the 1978 Council on Environmental Quality NEPA regulations, will be used to develop the Draft EIS, including identification of the following:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announces the release of a scoping report for the Pacific Ocean AquaFarms (POA) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). This report documents the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) scoping process, the comments submitted during the interagency informational and public scoping meetings, and the comments submitted in response to the publication of the Federal Register Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an EIS for the proposed project.

• Key issues to focus the analysis
• Reasonable alternatives for analysis
• Environmental issues and impacts of the proposed action and alternatives for evaluation
• Means to avoid, minimize, and mitigate environmental impacts

Visit the NOAA Fisheries website to access the report.

Background
On September 9, 2020, NOAA published an NOI to prepare an EIS for the proposed development of a commercial-scale finfish aquaculture facility to be located in Federal waters off the coast of southern California. The proposed facility would require two Federal permits: a Section 402 Clean Water Act permit and a Section 10 Rivers and Harbor Act permit, over which the EPA and USACE, respectively, have authority. NOAA is acting as lead agency for the purposes of this EIS and the EPA and USACE are cooperating agencies.

On October 14 and 16, 2020, NOAA held two public scoping meetings. The purpose of the scoping meetings was to facilitate public engagement regarding the scope of the EIS for the Pacific Ocean AquaFarms project as part of scoping.