EPA - Klawinski

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

- Any letters, reports or memos sent to the Department of Environmental Conservation from EPA official Gary Klawinski or Michael Cheplowitz regarding General Electric's dredging of the Hudson River, and/or the proposed end of that dredging. I request the documents from 1/1/11 to the present.

- All letters, reports or memos sent to EPA official Gary Klawinski or Michael Cheplowitz by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation or and/or its subsidiary departments (such as the Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources) regarding General Electric's dredging of the Hudson River, and/or the proposed end of that dredging. I request the documents from 1/1/11 to the present.

- All letters, reports or memos sent to EPA official Gary Klawinski or Michael Cheplowitz by officials, consultants and/or lobbyists for General Electric regarding General Electric's polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the Hudson River, General Electric's dredging of the Hudson River and/or the proposed end of that dredging.

- All letters, reports or memos sent by EPA official Gary Klawinski or Michael Cheplowitz to officials, consultants and/or lobbyists for General Electric regarding General Electric's polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the Hudson River, General Electric's dredging of the Hudson River and/or the proposed end of that dredging.

I request the documents from 1/1/11 to the present.

Please search for responsive records regardless of format. I request the information in a machine-processable format, such as a spreadsheet (CSV or XLS) or word processor (TXT, DOC, DOCX) format. It can be provided by email, thumb drive, or CD. If it is unavailable in any other format, an OCRed PDF (i.e. searchable) will do.

If it is your position that any portion of the requested records is exempt from disclosure, I request that you provide it with an index of those documents as required under Vaughn v. Rosen, 484 F.2d 820 (D.C. Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 415 U.S. 977 (1972). As you are aware, a Vaughn index must describe each document claimed as exempt with sufficient specificity “to permit a reasoned judgment as to whether the material is actually exempt under FOIA.” Founding Church of Scientology v. Bell, 603 F.2d 945, 949 (D.C. Cir. 1979). Moreover, the Vaughn index must “describe each document or portion thereof withheld, and for each withholding it must discuss the consequences of supplying the sought-after information.” King v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, 830 F.2d 210, 223-24 (D.C. Cir. 1987) (emphasis added). Further, “the withholding agency must supply ‘a relatively detailed justification, specifically identifying the reasons why a particular exemption is relevant and correlating those claims with the particular part of a withheld document
to which they apply.’” Id.at 224 (citing Mead Data Central v. U.S. Dep’t of the Air Force, 566 F.2d 242, 251 (D.C. Cir. 1977)).

In the event some portions of the requested records are properly exempt from disclosure, please disclose any reasonably segregable non-exempt portions of the requested records. See 5 U.S.C. § 552(b). If it is your position that a document contains non-exempt segments, but that those non-exempt segments are so dispersed throughout the document as to make segregation impossible, please state what portion of the document is non-exempt, and how the material is dispersed throughout the document. Mead Data Central, 566 F.2d at 261. Claims of nonsegregability must be made with the same degree of detail as required for claims of exemptions in a Vaughn index. If a request is denied in whole, please state specifically that it is not reasonable to segregate portions of the record for release.

I request a waiver of fees associated with processing this request for records. International Business Times is a news media organization. Disclosure of the requested information to me is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government. The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request.

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,

David Sirota
International Business Times
(646) 867-7155

Yes, I just resubmitted it at FOIAonline.