An advocacy group has gone to federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking to force the Environmental Protection Agency to hand over documents that led to approval of a new low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed suit Oct. 19 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The group seeks an order forcing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) disclosure of “wrongly withheld documents” the group asked for in a December 2022 Freedom of Information Act request.
The group claims EPA officials have been dragging their feet on the request surrounding approval of the planned 2.2-million cubic yard Environmental Management Disposal Facility.
Ground was broken in August on the facility backed by U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), chairs of the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee. The new facility will replace the existing landfill for Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund) waste at Oak Ridge.
The new landfill will take construction waste from mercury-contaminated buildings being torn down at the Y-12 National Security Complex and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
“The suit seeks to find out why EPA allowed a landfill at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, one of the nation’s largest nuclear waste sites, to pollute local waters over the objections of its top legal experts,” PEER said in a press release. In particular, PEER wants information on why President Joe Biden’s EPA administrator, Michael Regan, let stand an earlier position by Donald Trump’s EPA head Andrew Wheeler.
“The core issue is that Superfund cleanups must be done in accordance with, not in violation of, the Clean Water Act,” PEER’s executive director Tim Whitehouse, a former EPA senior attorney, said in the release.
To date, EPA has refused to fully provide PEER with the Freedom of Information Act documents, or make a final determination on the request, within 20 days of Dec. 12, 2022, which would be about Jan. 1, 2023, according to the complaint.
In January 2023, EPA informed PEER it was working on the request and needed more time. The Public Employees group received a number of updates, often with EPA saying it identified tranches of supplemental records.
PEER goes on to say more than 250 records were released between early June and early September. This included some documents that were “partially withheld.” Then in mid-September another 128 records were released. “In addition, EPA stated it would require more time to produce the next set of records – approximately 1,400 documents,” according to PEER. “However, a timeline for production was not given.”
On Sept. 14, EPA sent PEER an email stating the final decision on the request was “Partial Grant/Partial Denial,” PEER said in the complaint. “There was no further elaboration. PEER requested a formal final determination letter.”
“PEER has yet to receive the remaining responsive records or a final determination,” PEER said in the suit. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, according to online court records.
