LOWER GROUP

Chairperson: Bob Wyatt, NW Natural
Treasurer: Frederick Wolf, DBA, Legacy Site Services for Arkema

via electronic mail
March 18, 2016

Lori Cora

Assistant Regional Counsel

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Region 10, 

1200 Sixth Avenue

Seattle, WA 98101?3140

Re: Lower Willamette Group Freedom of Information Request (Lower Willamette River,
Portland Harbor Superfund Site, USEPA Docket No: CERCLA-10-2001-0240)

Dear Lori:

As a follow up to our conversation on Wednesday, we are writing to confirm the willingness of
the Lower Willamette Group and its members to work with EPA to avoid any delay in issuance of
the Proposed Plan for Portland Harbor related to the March 9,2016 request under the Freedom
of Information Act. We want to reiterate that our intent in submitting the FOIA request on March 9 was
to ensure that we would receive response in time to inform our decision about whether to initiate
dispute resolution concerning the final Feasibility Study within the 14 day deadline following
issuance ofthe Proposed Plan, which we understand EPA expects to release the week of April 4.1 We
did not intend to create any additional burden or delay for we are simply attempting to obtain
information to support a very short deadline for review of the F5, to inform our comments on the
proposed plan, and to ensure a complete administrative record for remedy selection.

To confirm the ideas we discussed on Wednesday, the LWG and its members are willing to do or
accept any combination of the following to avoid impacting schedule:

0 EPA has already provided information related to the August 2015 draft F5 in response to
our informal requests last fall. We are not requesting that EPA duplicate that
production. If EPA can confirm that all non-exempt records concerning aspects of the
August 2015 draft FS that will carry forward into the final FS have already been
provided, we are willing to defer receipt of an index of exempt information until after
issuance of the Proposed Plan, or even after issuance of the ROD. We understand from
our conversation that EPA may not find this a helpful suggestion for certain technical
reasons, and that EPA may in fact find it more burdensome not to duplicate information
it has already provided. To the extent EPA finds some merit in this offer, however, the

 

1 This deadline was established in the February 4,2016 settlement agreement between EPA and the LWG
concerning January 4,2016 takeover of the Portland Harbor FS.
421 SW Sixth Avenue, Suite 750. Portland OR 97204

Lori Cora
March 18, 2016
Page 2

LWG would also be willing to provide an index of the information we have received to
date.

The LWG is willing to negotiate with EPA an extension to the deadline for initiating
dispute resolution on final F5 to some later date within the public comment
period on the Proposed Plan but after receipt of the records subject to the FOIA. If we
could agree to extend this deadline, the LWG would withdraw the existing FOIA and
submit a new FOIA after the Proposed Plan issues.

The LWG is willing to work with EPA to identify a narrowed scope of information
requests related to revisions to the August 2015 draft FS that would facilitate EPA
providing at least some records prior to the current FS dispute deadline. As we
understand it, preference would be for us to withdraw the existing FOIA and
replace it with a new FOIA that, for example, focused on records generated after August
18,2015. The LWG would then submit a more comprehensive FOIA after the Proposed
Plan issues.

We understand from our conversation with you that deferring the FOIA until after
issuance of the Proposed Plan may trigger similar concerns about burdening EPA
resources during and after the public comment period. As we explained during the call,
we believe our best opportunity to ensure a complete administrative record in the event
of any later judicial review is to have the agency?s records available for review of the
final FS and incorporation into our comments on the proposed plan. However, if EPA
will stipulate that we can supplement the administrative record in any later judicial
review, we would be willing to withdraw the existing FOIA request and submit a new
FOIA request after EPA issues the Portland Harbor ROD.

We hope that EPA will consider these ideas, and we certainly remain open to other ideas EPA
may have. Again, we are committed to working with EPA so that the scope and timing of this FOIA does
not delay issuance of the Proposed Plan. We look forward to hearing from you.

CC:

Sincerely,

The Lower Willamette Group

WW

By Patty Dost and Loren Dunn

Dennis McLerran, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10

Cami Grandinetti, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10
Jim Woolford, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Headquarters

421 SW Sixth Avenue, Suite 750. Portland OR 97204