IL EPA Trump

[A close up of a logo Description generated with high confidence]
August 3, 2023

Attn: Mr. Jimmy Tobias
MuckRock News, Dept MR149929
263 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115
Re: Freedom of Information Act Request - 127226
Dear Mr. Tobias:
This letter is in response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (5 ILCS 140/1 et seq.)
request dated July 27, 2023 and received by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
(Illinois EPA) on July 28, 2023.

Please be advised that the Illinois EPA is unable to respond to your request within five (5) business days and is extending the response time by an additional five (5) business days pursuant to the Illinois FOIA at 5 ILCS 140/3(e). The reason for the delay is as follows:

(i) the requested records are stored in whole or in part at other locations than the office having charge of the requested records;

Sincerely,
[cid:image002.jpg@01D9C5F1.E6528C20]
Anwar Johnson
Illinois EPA FOIA Officer
217.558.5101
http://www.epa.illinois.gov/foia/index

State of Illinois - CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this communication is confidential, may be attorney-client privileged or attorney work product, may constitute inside information or internal deliberative staff communication, and is intended only for the use of the addressee. Unauthorized use, disclosure or copying of this communication or any part thereof is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and destroy this communication and all copies thereof, including all attachments. Receipt by an unintended recipient does not waive attorney-client privilege, attorney work product privilege, or any other exemption from disclosure.

Good afternoon

The Agency received the results of the email search for the attached FOIA request and there are more than 300 results we would need to review to determine if they are responsive to your request and to remove any documents exempt under FOIA.

Would you be willing to eliminate results that are only emails of news clippings from newspapers and are not documents the Agency created or received?

Would you be willing to eliminate any results that include only the search term NPDES?

Please let me know if either/both of these suggestions are acceptable.

Thank you
Sharon

State of Illinois - CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this communication is confidential, may be attorney-client privileged or attorney work product, may constitute inside information or internal deliberative staff communication, and is intended only for the use of the addressee. Unauthorized use, disclosure or copying of this communication or any part thereof is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and destroy this communication and all copies thereof, including all attachments. Receipt by an unintended recipient does not waive attorney-client privilege, attorney work product privilege, or any other exemption from disclosure.

Thank you for your reply. I will let you know when we get the new search results back.

Since tomorrow was our initial response deadline, we will need some additional time to review the results. Would you be agreeable to granting the Agency an additional 10 working days to reply. We expect to respond on or before August 25, 2023.

Please let me know if this extension is acceptable.

Thank you
Sharon

[A close up of a logoDescription generated with high confidence]
August 22, 2023
N/A
Attn: Mr. Jimmy Tobias
MuckRock News, Dept MR149929
263 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115
Re: Freedom of Information Act Request - 127226
Dear Mr. Tobias:
This letter is in response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (5 ILCS 140/1 et seq.)
request dated July 27, 2023 and received by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
(Illinois EPA) on July 28, 2023. On August 10, 2023, you agreed to exclude news clippings from the FOIA response.

After reviewing the Illinois EPA's files, and pursuant to Section 7 of FOIA and 2 Ill. Adm. Code 1828.202, the Illinois EPA has determined that some of the public records requested are exempt from disclosure under FOIA. Deliberative process communications, attorney-client privileged communications and documents containing a Confidential Business Information claim were withheld pursuant to Sections 7(1)(f), 7(1)(m), and 7(1)(g). Complainant names, personal citizen addresses, phone numbers, emails addresses and other identifiers, and teleconference access codes were redacted in accordance with Sections 7(1)(b), 7(1)(c), and 7(1)(d)(iv). Pursuant to Section 9.5 of FOIA and 2 Ill. Adm. Code 1828.505, you may file a request for review with the Public Access Counselor (PAC) established in the Office of the Attorney General no later than 60 days after the date of the Illinois EPA's final denial. Contact information for the PAC is as follows:

Leah Bartelt
Public Access Counselor
Office of the Attorney General
500 S. 2nd Street
Springfield, Illinois 62701
Phone: 312-814-5526 or
1-877-299-FOIA (1-877-299-3642)
Fax: 217-782-1396
E-mail: Public.Access@ilag.gov<mailto:Public.Access@ilag.gov>

You also have the right to seek judicial review of the denial of your request by filing a lawsuit in circuit court, pursuant to 5 ILCS 140/11.

The public records that are not exempt from disclosure are described below.

Requested Information - July 17 through August 17, 2023
Communications between John Kim, James Jennings, Laura Roche and/or Sanjay Sofat containing one or more of the following keywords: Trump, Trump Tower, NPDES, Sierra Club.

The information responsive to your request is being sent using the Microsoft OneDrive file transfer utility. An email message will shortly follow this response that will contain a link allowing you to download the information. Please download the information at your earliest convenience because the information may only be available for a limited time at the OneDrive file location provided in the email message.

Sincerely,
[cid:image002.jpg@01D9D4FC.5D1848E0]
Anwar Johnson
Illinois EPA FOIA Officer
217.558.5101
http://www.epa.illinois.gov/foia/index

State of Illinois - CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this communication is confidential, may be attorney-client privileged or attorney work product, may constitute inside information or internal deliberative staff communication, and is intended only for the use of the addressee. Unauthorized use, disclosure or copying of this communication or any part thereof is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and destroy this communication and all copies thereof, including all attachments. Receipt by an unintended recipient does not waive attorney-client privilege, attorney work product privilege, or any other exemption from disclosure.

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State of Illinois - CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this communication is confidential, may be attorney-client privileged or attorney work product, may constitute inside information or internal deliberative staff communication, and is intended only for the use of the addressee. Unauthorized use, disclosure or copying of this communication or any part thereof is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and destroy this communication and all copies thereof, including all attachments. Receipt by an unintended recipient does not waive attorney-client privilege, attorney work product privilege, or any other exemption from disclosure.