A federal court wants to know more, by Jan. 5, about a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by a citizens group seeking access to some U.S. Environmental Protection Agency documents about a radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee.
U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes ordered a status report on Friday after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) replied to the complaint filed in October by plaintiff Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an advocacy group based in Silver Spring, Md.
In its Dec. 15 filing, the Department of Justice, which represents EPA, said the federal agency is still working on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the Public Employees group December 2022 but has not issued a final determination on all the records sought.
The Justice Department also said some documents sought by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility are exempt from FOIA. The federal attorneys also said EPA told the plaintiffs in a September 2023 letter that “a small portion of information on two of the 138 records” in a key tranche due to individual privacy concerns.
According to Public Employees, EPA has been slow-walking the information request for records surrounding approval of the planned 2.2-million cubic yard Environmental Management Disposal Facility. DOE and its Oak Ridge cleanup contractor broke ground in August on the low-level radioactive waste landfill that would replace one that is nearly full.
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), who chairs the Energy and Water subcommittee for the House Appropriations Committee, has called the new landfill vital to future remediation of buildings contaminated with mercury at the Y-12 National Security Complex and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
