&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
DIRECTIVE NUMBER: 9320.4-01
TITLE: Interim Information Release Policy
APPROVAL DATE: April 18, 1985
EFFECTIVE DATE: April 18, 1985
ORIGINATING OFFICE: OERR/HSCD
E FINAL
D DRAFT
STATUS:
REFERENCE (other documents):
OS WER OS WER OS WER
'E DIRECTIVE DIRECTIVE D
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03/19/87 United States Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
EPA OSWER Directive Initiation Request
1. Directive Number
9320.4-01
2. Originator Information
Name of Contact Person
PARRISH
Matt Code
Offlc*
OERR/HSCD
Telephone Number
382-5632
3. Title
INTERIM INFORMATION RELEASE POLICY
4. Summary of Directive (Include brief statement of purpose)
Provides interim policy for NPL information
release and should be used by the Regions to
prepare a coordinated response to Public Citizen
FOIA Requests.'(4/85, 6 pp)
5. Keywords
SUPERFUND, CERCLA, NATIONAL PRIORITIES LIST, NPL, FREEDOM OF
INFORMATION ACT, FOIA, POLICY
6a. Does this Directive Supercede Previous Directives)?) | yes
No
What directive (number, title)
b. Does it Supplement Previous Directives^)?
yes
_XJ No What directive (number, title)
7. Draft Level
A-SlgnedbyAA/DAA
B • Signed by Office Director
C • For Review & Comment
In Development
This Request Meets OSWER Directives System Format
B. Signature of Lead Office Directives Coordinator
Date
9. Name and Title of Approving Official
W. HEDEMAN
Date
04/18/85
OSWER OSWER OSWER
DIRECTIVE DIRECTIVE
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Ti ' UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
* WASHINGTON. D.C. 20460
APR I 8 1985
OFFICE OF
SOLID WASTE AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE
OSWER Directive 9320.4-1
MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: Interim Information Release Policy
FROM: William N. Hedeman, Jr., Direct
Office of Emergency and Remedial
TO: Addressees
Recently, the Regions have received Freedom of Information
(FOIA) requests from Public Citizen, a public interest group.
Public Citizen requested the Hazard Ranking System (HRS) Work-
sh^ets, Documentation Records, Site Inspection Reports (EPA Form
2070-13), and narrative summaries for a specific list of sites
for each Region. Public Citizen asked for an indication of
which, if any, of the sites on their list are proposed for, or
are on the NPL. Finally, Public Citizen requested an explanation
of why sites with scores greater than 28.50 were not proposed.
This memo provides an interim policy for NPL information
release, and should be used by the Regions to prepare a coor-
dinated response to the Public Citizen FOIA request. As discussed
in the November 1984 NPL Conference, we are providing this interim
guidance for comment. Based on your comments, we intend to issue
a final policy later this summer. Please provide Trudi Fancher,
Discovery and investigation Branch, with your comments by April 30,
1985.
Attachment A is a matrix which illustrates recommended
release decisions for site documents at various milestones during
the NPL process. The vertical axis represents documents and the
horizontal axis represents site categories as a function of time.
Attachment B provides a description of the site categories and an
explanation of the recommended release policy for each category.
As the matrix in Attachment A indicates, final Preliminary Assess-
ment (PA), Site Inspection (SI) reports, and narrative summaries
may be released at any time, as well as drafts of those reports,
as long as it is clearly indicated that the documents are draft
and subject to change. In addition, portions of these documents
may be withheld under FOIA exemption 7 (for example, if the
release of the information would interfere with future enforcement
proceedings).
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The FOIA requests from Public Citizen have focused on sites
which we have defined as "QC<25.00" and "Insufficient Data for
QA". As the attachments indicate, we recommend that the QC'd
HRS documents for "QCX25.00" be released after the Region has
made the final determination that the site scores below 25.00.
The decision to release QC'd HRS documents returned to the Regions
because of insufficient data or documentation for QA is dependent
upon the status of data/documentation aquisition by the Regions
at the time of publication of the next proposed rule in the
Federal Register. If at that time, the Region is in the process
of obtaining, or has already obtained, the data/documentation
necessary for QA, then the QC'd HRS documents would be exempt
under Section (b)(5) of FOIA and would not be released. If,
however, the Region has not provided any additional data/docu-
mentation at the time of the next proposed rule publication, then
the QC'd HRS documents may be released. We encourage you to work
with your Regional FOIA contact to develop appropriate language
for response.
For sites which are determined to be ineligible for inclusion
on the NPL, HRS packages may be released upon request. This
could include pre-QC and QC approved packages. The Agency has
developed several eligibility policies concerning categories of
sites listed on the NPL. These policies have been discussed in
the following preambles:
0 Mining Wastes - (47 FR 58478, December 30, 1982; 48 FR
40663, September 8, 1983; 49 FR 37075, September 21, 1984).
0 Releases of Radioactive Materials - (47 FR 58477,
December 30, 1982; 48 FR 40661, September 8, 1983; 49 FR
37074, September 21, 1984).
0 Indian Lands - (48 FR 40663; September 8, 1983; 49 FR
37074, September 21, 1984).
As you are aware, additional eligibility policies are being
formulated (i.e., pesticide application sites and RCRA-related
sites). As these policies are finalized, FOIA release policies
would also be applicable.
The FOIA request from Public Citizen requested a waiver or
reduction in fees for providing the requested information. If
all the requested documents for all of the listed sites are
provided, the costs could be quite high. Based upon preliminary
surveys of the Regional requests, it appears that many of the
HRS documents are predecisional at this time, and therefore
will not be released. For those documents which are determined
to be subject to release and are not part of the public docket,
we recommend that the appropriate documents be provided to Public
Citizen at no cost. Charging for documents in the public docket
is appropriate since no public interest will be served by the
disclosure of those documents. The public already has access to
them.
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Please contact Hal Snyder or Scott Parrish, of ray staff at
>FTS 475-8103 with questions regarding this matter.
Attachment
Addressees:
txlohn Moebes/Susan Ziono /Sara Knott/Tira Purdue1^
^George Pavlou/Carole Petersorv "'Bob Morby/Shelly Brodie -^
\yEd Skernolis/Connie Carr vx ^fiill Guise/Dave Schaller*-'
,/Al Smith/Jon Johnston-/ "Keith Takata/Karen Kohnert
(/Rich Bartelt/Jeanie Griff in ^ txPhil Millam/Joan McNamee,^
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