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FOIA process in the Documents Management Section


What is the Superfund Division's FOIA Process?

In 1991, the Waste Management Division, now known as the Superfund Division (SFD), established the first centralized Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Section in the nation. The Freedom of Information Act Section (FMS) was designed to eliminate the large backlog and to provide quality responses to the high volume of public inquiries received by the division annually. In 1996, the section was renamed the Documents Management Section (DMS). With this, the additional responsibility of records management was added to the section. The overall SFD FOIA process is illustrated in the division's DMS FOIA Flowchart as described below.

The FOIA process begins when the FOIA Office receives the FOIA request. Once an inquiry is received from a requestor (e.g., law firms, insurance companies, engineering firms, environmental firms, or the general public) the FOIA Officer, issues a Request Identification Number (RIN). The requestor is sent a letter acknowledging receipt of the request. All FOIA inquiries are then assigned to the appropriate Region 5 Divisions or Offices for processing. Once the SFD receives the request, the SFD FOIA process starts and the statutory twenty (20) work day response time begins.

All Region 5 FOIA inquiries should be directed to the FOIA Office at the following address:

FOIA OFFICER
United States Environmental Protection Agency (MI-9J)
77 West Jackson Chicago, Illinois 60604
Telephone: (312) 886-6686
Facsimile: (312) 886-1515
http://www.epa.gov/region5/foia.htm

If a FOIA inquiry is assigned to the SFD, it is processed through the DMS FOIA Coordinator and distributed to the FOIA Specialists. Each Specialist has the responsibility of answering FOIA requests for one or more of the six (6) States within Region 5. The FOIA Specialists and their respective States are found here. Typically, FOIA inquiries from the public are received on various environmental subjects. Based on the level of difficulty, each request is processed through one of four (4) categories. The types of SFD FOIA Requests are:

(1) Fannie Mae;
(2) General;
(3) Technical;
(4) Multi-Site and
(5) Complex

Complex FOIA inquiries are directed to the DMS from the Region 5 FOIA Office.  Upon receipt of a Complex FOIA request, the Specialist must identify, track, and locate all responsive documents before an initial determination is made.  Documents may originate from one or more programs, divisions/offices, and/or other U.S. EPA regions.

Complex FOIA inquiries may relate to bankruptcy and/or subpoenas. The FOIA Specialist must immediately contact the Site Attorney for guidance and to coordinate information.  The attorney provides instructions to the Specialist regarding the retention and/or release of all documents. The documents must be approved by the Site Attorney and certified prior to release.

The SFD operates under a Cancellation of FOIA Request policy. A requestor may elect to cancel an inquiry at anytime during the FOIA process. In special situations, a request can also be cancelled by the agency. In either case, the requestor is formally informed.

All documents related to Superfund clean-up activities are stored and maintained in the SFD Record Center, located on the 7th floor of the U.S. EPA Region 5 Office. The Record Center personnel consists of a Records Manager and contractor staff. (See the link for contact information.)

Most of the SFD documents used to respond to FOIA inquiries originate from the SFD Record Center and are available to the public in the SFD Reading Room. Records may be reproduced in paper copy or electronically from the Superfund Data Management System (SDMS). Other documents may be retrieved from On Scene Coordinators, Remedial Project Managers, Attorneys, Early Action Program Managers, and other EPA personnel. The SFD documents are provided according to individual requests which may involve one or more of the following six (6) formats:

  1. paper (hard copy);
  2. electronic;
  3. diskette;
  4. facsimile;
  5. CD ROM; and/or
  6. Internet Reports

To better accommodate the FOIA requestors who prefer to review documents within Region 5, a File Review can be arranged by the appropriate FOIA Specialist. A Superfund Records Management Liaison may be included to maintain and coordinate communications between the Records Center Manager, FOIA Specialists, and the Record Center staff when necessary. (Please check here for information on Confidential Business Information on material.)

Once the records are determined to be releasable, the DMS staff generally works together to respond to each request within twenty (20) working days. If after researching the request, it is determined there are No Documents in our files or that records are found but are fully/partially non-releasable, a more lengthy process and coordination with the DMS Denial/ Partial Denial Coordinator and our legal counsel usually is required. All Denial and Partial Denial responses require the Division Director's signature.

Once a request has been completely processed, a response is prepared by the FOIA Specialist. A Bill for Collection, for either Combined or Cumulative Billing, is prepared and enclosed with the response letter or package before mailing. The response is then closed out and logged.

Since our goal is to provide our customers with high quality customer service, we remain diligent in our efforts to make improvements. Throughout the years, the DMS has been receptive to new initiatives, tested them, and if feasible, integrated them into our daily FOIA procedures. A Survey Card is enclosed with each response in order to gather customer feedback. Once the survey cards are returned to us with comments, they are reviewed to determine the quality of service. This analysis helps us to provide clear, precise, and timely responses to the public. We also keep an on-going vigil for other resources that may increase the quality of service to our customers.

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