Title 16
SECTION 1021.9
1021.9 Public participation, notice, and comment.
§ 1021.9 Public participation, notice, and comment.(a) Information and comments are solicited from and provided to the public on anticipated environmental effects of CPSC actions as follows:
(1) Promptly after a decision is made to prepare a draft EIS, a notice of intent to prepare the draft EIS shall be published in the CPSC Public Calendar and in the Federal Register. The notice shall state the nature of the proposed action and available alternatives and shall describe the planned scoping process. The notice shall solicit information and comment by other governmental agencies and the public.
(2) As soon as practicable after a finding of no significant impact is completed, a copy of the finding together with the environmental assessment report shall be forwarded to the Office of the Secretary of the Commission to be made available to the public. Any information and comments received from the public on the documents will be considered and will accompany the documents throughout the CPSC decisionmaking process, but comments will not ordinarily be answered individually.
(3)(i) Upon completion of a draft EIS, a notice of its availability for comment should be published in the CPSC Public Calendar and in the Federal Register. Copies of the draft EIS shall be filed with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in accordance with § 1506.9 of the NEPA regulations. The length of the comment period on the draft EIS shall be stated in the notice of availability and on the cover of the draft EIS. The comment period, in accordance with § 1506.10 of the NEPA regulations, shall be a minimum of 45 days from the date the notice of receipt of the draft EIS is published in the Federal Register by EPA. It should also be stated in the CPSC notice that comments received during the comment period will be addressed in the final EIS, whereas late comments will be considered to the extent practicable, and that all comments will be appended to the final EIS.
(ii) Copies of the draft EIS shall be sent to public and private organizations known by CPSC to have special expertise with respect to the environmental effects involved, those who are known to have an interest in the action, and those who request an opportunity to comment. Also, copies shall be circulated for comment to Federal, State, and local agencies with jurisdiction by law and special expertise with respect to environmental effects involved. Part 1503 of the NEPA regulations shall be consulted for further details of this procedure.
(iii) Draft EIS's shall be available to the public in the Office of the Secretary at Commission headquarters.
(4) Upon completion of a final EIS, a notice of its availability in the Office of the Secretary, shall be published in the CPSC Public Calendar and if deemed appropriate, in the Federal Register. Copies of the final EIS shall be forwarded to EPA and one copy shall be sent to each entity or person who commented on the draft EIS.
(5) A list of EIS's under preparation and of EIS's or findings of no significant impact and environmental assessments completed shall be available to the public in the Office of the Secretary, at Commission headquarters. The list shall be continuously updated.
(6) In addition to publication in the CPSC Public Calendar and the Federal Register, notices called for by this section may also be publicized through press releases or local newspapers, whenever appropriate.