EPA and Oil and Gas Industry Contacts 2004 to 2005
Tracking # |
EPA-HQ-2017-007127 |
Submitted | May 10, 2017 |
Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Neela Banerjee
To Whom It May Concern:
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:
Please provide all emails and other communications regarding hydraulic fracturing and groundwater resources from Jan 1 2004 to Dec 1 2005:
**between the director of the office of groundwater, and anyone who reported to that official, and the American Petroleum Institute
**between the director of the office of groundwater, and anyone who reported to that official, and individual oil and gas corporations, including BUT not limited to: Halliburton, Schlumberger, JB Resources, Devon Energy, Chesapeake Energy
**between the deputy director of the office of groundwater, and anyone who reported to that official, and the American Petroleum Institute
**between the deputy director of the office of groundwater, and anyone who reported to that official, and individual oil and gas corporations, including BUT not limited to: Halliburton, Schlumberger, JB Resources, Devon Energy, Chesapeake Energy
**between the office of the administrator, including the office of policy, with:
a. the American Petroleum Institute
b. individual oil and gas corporations, including BUT not limited to: Halliburton, Schlumberger, JB Resources, Devon Energy, Chesapeake Energy
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
Please properly categorize me as in the media requester category for fee assessment purposes.
I am a reporter for Inside Climate News who has extensively covered the topics of this request, and I am filing this request as part of my news gathering process.
You can find some of my recent reporting on the EPA and environmental issues at this URL:
https://insideclimatenews.org/author/neela-banerjee
If additional clarification is needed for fee categorization, please let me know. I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Neela Banerjee
From: foia_hq@epa.gov
This message is to confirm your request submission to the FOIAonline application: View Request. Request information is as follows: (https://foiaonline.regulations.gov:443/foia/action/public/view/request?objectId=090004d2812f7509)
* Tracking Number: EPA-HQ-2017-007127
* Requester Name: Neela Banerjoe
* Date Submitted: 05/10/2017
* Request Status: Submitted
* Description: Requesting all emails and other communications regarding hydraulic fracturing and groundwater resources from Jan 1 2004 to Dec 1 2005.
From: flaharty.stephanie@epa.gov
05/15/2017 10:18 AM FOIA Request: EPA-HQ-2017-007127
Dear Ms. Banerjoe,
This is in response to your request to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for staff emails and other communications regarding hydraulic fracturing from January 1, 2004, to December 1, 2005. Because your request involves many EPA individuals (several of which are now retired from the agency) and a high volume of archived records, your request is being placed on a long term track with a production schedule of partial releases in phases. We are scheduling the first partial response by June 18, 2017, which provides a 10-day extension to the current due date.
If you would like to discuss the possibility of narrowing your request, please contact me.
You may appeal this response by email at hq.foia@epa.gov, or by mail to the National Freedom of Information Office, U.S. EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. (2822T), Washington, DC 20460. Only items mailed through the United States Postal Service may be delivered to 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue. If you are submitting your appeal by hand delivery, courier service, or overnight delivery, you must address your correspondence to 1301 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Room 6416J, Washington, DC 20001. Your appeal must be in writing, and it must be received no later than 90 calendar days from the date of this letter. The Agency will not consider appeals received after the 90-calendar-day limit. Appeals received after 5:00 pm EST will be considered received the next business day. The appeal letter should include the FOIA tracking number listed above. For quickest possible handling, the subject line of your email, the appeal letter, and its envelope, if applicable, should be marked “Freedom of Information Act Appeal.” Additionally, you may seek assistance from EPA’s FOIA Public Liaison at hq.foia@epa.gov or (202) 566-1667, or from the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS). You may contact OGIS in any of the following ways: by mail, Office of Government Information Services, National Archives and Records Administration, Room 2510, 8610 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001; email, ogis@nara.gov; telephone, (301) 837-1996 or (877) 684-6448; or fax, (301) 837-0348.
Stephanie Flaharty
FOIA Public Liaison
Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water
From: flaharty.stephanie@epa.gov
06/13/2017 12:53 PM FOIA Request: EPA-HQ-2017-007127
Dear Ms. Banerjoe,
This is to inform you of our pending transmittal of our first partial response and to update you on our progress in responding to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, EPA-HQ-2017-007127, to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for communications regarding hydraulic fracturing from January 1, 2004, to December 1, 2005.
You should receive a CD containing responsive records via UPS within the next day. I am currently waiting to hear whether the Lotus Notes emails of the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water (during 2004 and 2005), Benjamin Grumbles, are available. I am also requesting hard copy files be delivered from the EPA Federal Records Center (in Maryland). Those files contain Office of Water (including Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water) controlled correspondence files (12 boxes) for 2004 - 2005. I will be searching those files for responsive records and plan to provide you with another partial response by July 15, 2017.
In our search, we have discovered that several retired staff email accounts dated prior to June 2011 are not available. Our National Notes and Email Support Office provided me with some history regarding our retention of the Lotus Notes database as follows: National centralized mail servers were established in June 2011, during which EPA users’ Lotus Notes mail files were migrated to the current centralized server. Thus, we discovered that some closed accounts of retired employees were not migrated.
You may appeal this response by email at hq.foia@epa.gov, or by mail to the National Freedom of Information Office, U.S. EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. (2822T), Washington, DC 20460. Only items mailed through the United States Postal Service may be delivered to 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue. If you are submitting your appeal by hand delivery, courier service, or overnight delivery, you must address your correspondence to 1301 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Room 6416J, Washington, DC 20001. Your appeal must be in writing, and it must be received no later than 90 calendar days from the date of this letter. The Agency will not consider appeals received after the 90-calendar-day limit. Appeals received after 5:00 pm EST will be considered received the next business day. The appeal letter should include the FOIA tracking number listed above. For quickest possible handling, the subject line of your email, the appeal letter, and its envelope, if applicable, should be marked “Freedom of Information Act Appeal.” Additionally, you may seek assistance from EPA’s FOIA Public Liaison at hq.foia@epa.gov or (202) 566-1667, or from the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS). You may contact OGIS in any of the following ways: by mail, Office of Government Information Services, National Archives and Records Administration, Room 2510, 8610 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001; email, ogis@nara.gov; telephone, (301) 837-1996 or (877) 684-6448; or fax, (301) 837-0348.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Flaharty, FOIA Public Liaison
Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water
From: Environmental Protection Agency
A copy of documents responsive to the request.
From: Neela Banerjee
Hi, Stephanie,
Thanks so much for your help with this request! I really appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Neela Banerjee
From: flaharty.stephanie@epa.gov
07/11/2017 09:14 AM FOIA Request: EPA-HQ-2017-007127
From: Environmental Protection Agency
A copy of documents responsive to the request.
-
HQ-2017-007127 - 2004 Controlled Corresp. 1.html
From: flaharty.stephanie@epa.gov
07/26/2017 09:51 AM FOIA Request: EPA-HQ-2017-007127
Dear Ms. Banerjoe,
This is to update you on our progress in responding to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, EPA-HQ-2017-007127, to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for communications regarding hydraulic fracturing from January 1, 2004, to December 1, 2005. I have not received a response back from the Administrator’s Office (AO), so I am transferring the FOIA to the AO for final response.
You may appeal this response by email at hq.foia@epa.gov, or by mail to the National Freedom of Information Office, U.S. EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. (2822T), Washington, DC 20460. Only items mailed through the United States Postal Service may be delivered to 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue. If you are submitting your appeal by hand delivery, courier service, or overnight delivery, you must address your correspondence to 1301 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Room 6416J, Washington, DC 20001. Your appeal must be in writing, and it must be received no later than 90 calendar days from the date of this letter. The Agency will not consider appeals received after the 90-calendar-day limit. Appeals received after 5:00 pm EST will be considered received the next business day. The appeal letter should include the FOIA tracking number listed above. For quickest possible handling, the subject line of your email, the appeal letter, and its envelope, if applicable, should be marked “Freedom of Information Act Appeal.” Additionally, you may seek assistance from EPA’s FOIA Public Liaison at hq.foia@epa.gov or (202) 566-1667, or from the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS). You may contact OGIS in any of the following ways: by mail, Office of Government Information
Services, National Archives and Records Administration, Room 2510, 8610 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001; email, ogis@nara.gov; telephone, (301) 837-1996 or (877) 684-6448; or fax, (301) 837-0348.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Flaharty, FOIA Public Liaison
Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water
Dear Ms. Banerjoe,
This is to update you on our progress in responding to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, EPA-HQ-2017-007127, to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for communications regarding hydraulic fracturing from January 1, 2004, to December 1, 2005. I have not received a response back from the Administrator’s Office (AO), so I am transferring the FOIA to the AO for final response.
You may appeal this response by email at hq.foia@epa.gov, or by mail to the National Freedom of Information Office, U.S. EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. (2822T), Washington, DC 20460. Only items mailed through the United States Postal Service may be delivered to 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue. If you are submitting your appeal by hand delivery, courier service, or overnight delivery, you must address your correspondence to 1301 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Room 6416J, Washington, DC 20001. Your appeal must be in writing, and it must be received no later than 90 calendar days from the date of this letter. The Agency will not consider appeals received after the 90-calendar-day limit. Appeals received after 5:00 pm EST will be considered received the next business day. The appeal letter should include the FOIA tracking number listed above. For quickest possible handling, the subject line of your email, the appeal letter, and its envelope, if applicable, should be marked “Freedom of Information Act Appeal.” Additionally, you may seek assistance from EPA’s FOIA Public Liaison at hq.foia@epa.gov or (202) 566-1667, or from the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS). You may contact OGIS in any of the following ways: by mail, Office of Government Information
Services, National Archives and Records Administration, Room 2510, 8610 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001; email, ogis@nara.gov; telephone, (301) 837-1996 or (877) 684-6448; or fax, (301) 837-0348.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Flaharty, FOIA Public Liaison
Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water
From: Environmental Protection Agency
Ms. Banerjee,
Please see the attached final response from the EPA Office of the Administrator to your FOIA request, EPA-HQ-2017-007127.
From: Environmental Protection Agency
EPA-HQ-2017-007127 has been processed with the following final disposition: No records.
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