Activists Anticipate EPA Decision On FOIA Policy For Key Superfund Data

摘要

Environmentalists are expecting EPA to decide in the coming days whether it will reverse a 1991 policy preventing the release of certain contaminated-site data under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), after the agency recently "punted" on making the decision in a preliminary response to an activist lawsuit. In the lawsuit, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) argues EPA violated FOIA by failing to respond to the group's request for a slew of data pertaining to contaminated sites in New Jersey. Among the information PEER is seeking are Hazard Ranking System (HRS) score and scoring sheet documents for all New Jersey sites reviewed but not listed on the EPA's National Priorities List (NPL) for Superfund in the past five years, including sites where EPA has deferred NPL listing because the sites are already being addressed under the the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) cleanup program.