Source: http://www.dec.ny.gov/public/12310.html
Timestamp: 2015-03-31 06:39:03
Document Index: 603963532

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 84', '§ 303', '§ 87', '§ 303', '§ 303', '§ 87', '§ 87', '§ 87', '§ 87', '§ 87', '§ 87', '§ 87', '§ 89', 'art\n6', 'art\n30']

FOIL Appeal Determination for 05-14-7A (Joseph J. Heath) - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation
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FOIL Appeal Determination for 05-14-7A (Joseph J. Heath)
Attn: Thane Joyal, Esq.
Re: FOIL Appeal No. 05-14-7A
This is in response to your appeal, pursuant to the New York State Freedom of Information Law ("FOIL", codified at §§ 84-90 of the Public Officers Law ["POL"]), from the denial of access to records pertaining to the preparation of (a) § 303(d) lists for 1998 and 2002 for Onondaga Lake, and (b) total maximum daily loads ("TMDLs") for ammonia and phosphorus for Onondaga Lake.
As you indicated in your correspondence dated February 1, 2006, after an exchange of telephone calls among Steven Eidt of the Region 7 office of the Department of Environmental Conservation ("Department"), Thane Joyal, Esq. of your office and myself, Ms. Joyal reviewed records relating to the preparation of the TDMLs on December 16, 2005 at the Department's Region 7 office. Subsequently, Mr. Steven Eidt telecopied a list of records that had been withheld to your office.
By your February 1, 2006 correspondence, you requested that the Department:
"(1) review its records to determine whether additional responsive documents exist; and
(2) provide access to all responsive documents; and
(3) if access to any requested records is denied pursuant to Public Officers Law § 87(2), a written list of such records stating the grounds for denial of access for each record withheld."
Subsequent to your letter, Mr. Jeff Myers, Director of the Department's Bureau of Water Assessment and Management, communicated with your office regarding records on the listing/ delisting of Onondaga Lake and its tributaries with respect to the § 303(d) lists. By e-mail communication, Mr. Myers provided information on the draft 2006 § 303(d) list, and the 1998 and 2002 listings. By e-mail dated February 28, 2006, Mr. Myers advised that a search of Department records did not identify any additional records subject to your FOIL request, other than those attached to his earlier e-mail communication.
Department staff has also advised me that no additional records exist that are responsive to your FOIL request, and that access to all responsive records has either been provided or, based on Department staff's review of applicable FOIL exemptions, withheld.
On this appeal, I have reviewed the withheld records that Department staff provided to me. Attached is a listing of the records that were withheld. The listing includes a description of the type of record, date of the record, and the number of pages. Please note that several of the records, as I received them, included other records as attachments. The final column of the listing notes whether, pursuant to my review of the records on this appeal, a FOIL exemption(s) applies or if the record (or portions thereof) is releaseable.
As you know, exemptions from FOIL are set forth at POL § 87(2). Based on a review of the records, I have determined that two FOIL exemptions, POL § 87(2)(a) and POL § 87(2)(g), are applicable to most of the records that were originally withheld.
POL § 87(2)(a) exempts those records that are specifically exempted from disclosure by state or federal statute. Certain of the records subject to this FOIL appeal represent communications and analysis by Department attorneys or attorneys from the Attorney General's office in their representation of the Department and are subject to the attorney-client privilege (see CPLR 4503[a]) and/or constitute attorney work product (see CPLR 3101[c]). Accordingly, these are exempt from disclosure.
POL § 87(2)(g) authorizes the denial of access to records or portions thereof that are intra-agency or inter-agency materials which are not (i) statistical or factual tabulations or data, (ii) instructions to staff that affect the public, (iii) final agency policy or determinations, or (iv) external audits, including but not limited to audits performed by the comptroller and the federal government (see POL § 87[2][g][i]-[iv]).
Intra-agency and inter-agency materials that consist of opinions and recommendations of agency staff are exempted from FOIL "to protect the deliberative process of the government by ensuring that persons in an advisory role would be able to express their opinions freely to agency decision makers (citation omitted)" (Matter of Xerox Corp. v. Town of Webster, 65 NY2d 131, 132 [1985]; see also New York Times Co. v. City of New York Fire Department, 4 NY3d 477, 488 [2005] ["The point of the intra-agency exception is to permit people within an agency to exchange opinions, advice and criticism freely and frankly"]). Accordingly, various of the records (including but not limited to e-mails and other communications, memoranda, notes, and drafts) are exempt from disclosure pursuant to the intra-agency/inter-agency exemption.
As noted in the attached listing, many of the records which are otherwise releasable contain notes or comments of Department staff which are exempt pursuant POL § 87(2)(g). With respect to those records, the notes and comments would be redacted.
The records or portions of records that are being made available pursuant to the appeal consist of 200 pages. If you wish to be provided with copies, please send a check to Kimberly Sarbo of this office, made payable to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in the amount of $50.00 (200 pages at $0.25 per page), within thirty (30) days of the date of this letter. Alternatively, if you would prefer to review these documents at our office, please contact Kimberly Sarbo at (518) 402-8537 within thirty (30) days of the date of this letter.
This letter is the final determination of the Department of Environmental Conservation. You have the right to seek review of this determination pursuant to Article 78 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules, and Public Officers Law § 89(4)(b). In any further contact with this office, please refer to FOIL Appeal No. 05-14-7A.
FOIL APPEAL No. 05-14-7A
(Joseph J. Heath, Esq.)
Agency File No./Pages
POL Exemption
11C - 1 page
POL 87(2)(g)
Notes/draft on ammonia readings with attached data
11C - 5 pages
POL 87(2)(g) - 3 pages; release 2 pages of data (note: data in draft form/no indication that had been verified)
14C - 1 page
Notes (unsigned)
Notes ammonia limits
Notes - revised ammonia limits
23Sep93
14C - 2 pages
Faxed copy of news article w/notes
24May95
11B - 1 page
Release article, redact notes per POL 87(2)(g)
Notes - storm event calculations and data charts
Release 13 pages (data), redact notes per POL 87(2)(g); withhold remaining pages per POL 87(2)(g)
Notes - total urban storm load
10 - 5 pages
Handwritten letter (draft) with attached letter from Ray
8 - 6 pages
Withhold draft per POL 87(2)(g); release 4 page Ray letter
Draft proposal/response, calculations, notes and roster of attendees at June 3, 1997 meeting
11Jun97
8B - 10 pages
Withhold 8 pages per POL 87(2)(g); release 2 page 6/3/97 attendee roster
Notes - TMDL meeting
03Jun97
8B - 1 page
Assessment of seasonal diversion proposal w/notes
16Jun97
8B - 13 pages
2A or 2B - 7 pages
Draft w/notes
1F - 8 pages
Draft Ammonia TMDL and two one-page transmittal memos
Mar-7-97
1E - 17 pages
Draft Ammonia TMDL
1E - 15 pages
Notes re:"P" guidance values
1D - 2 pages
Information prepared by Department attorney
2B - 2 pages
POL 87(2)(g); POL 87(2)(a)
2B - 1 page
Water Quality Based Effluent Limitation Considerations (draft)
07May96
1F - 3 pages
POL 87(2)(g) - 2 pages; Release 1 page chart but redact notes per POL 87(2)(g)
1F - 2 pages
09Jul98
1B- 2 pages
04Jan96
1A - 1 page
03Jan96
1A - 2 pages
26Apr95
1A - 3 pages
Draft responsiveness summary
15 - 21 pages
Draft responsiveness summary w/notes
25Feb98
Memo with draft responsiveness summary
15 - 22 pages
Responsiveness summary (draft) w/notes
27Feb98
15 - 5 pages
Internal emails with attached Post-Standard news article
12-31-01, 12-24-01, and 11-21-01 with atts
15 - 10 pages
POL 87(2)(g), but release 3 page newspaper article with notes redacted per POL 87(2)(g)
3/4/87 memo with 2 attached 3/16/93 memos, and various notes
14A - 9 pages
Paper by Effler with notes and internal transmittal
Apr-7-93
14A - 15 pages
Withhold 1 page internal transmittal per POL 87(2)(g); release Effler paper with notes redacted per POL 87(2)(g)
Draft comments w/notes
1A - 11 pages
1A - 4 pages
27Dec95
Transmittal memo with attached 8-page letter from Whitelaw & Fangio, with notes
1B - 9 pages
Withhold 1 page per POL 87(2)(g); release 8 pages letter with notes redacted per POL 87(2)(g)
Draft letter & related material
1D - 6 pages
Draft TDML comments w/notes
2A- 7 pages
11/18/85?
3A - 1 page
3A - 4 pages
Memo w/notes
15Apr85
3A - 2 pages
3A - 3 pages
Draft Memo w/notes
3B - 4 pages
Draft internal memo w/notes and attached 12/21/93 two-page letter from Onondaga County w/notes
24Dec93
3B -4 pages
Withhold memo per POL 87(2)(g); release two-page Onondaga County letter but redact notes per POL 87(2)(g)
3B - 1 page
Sensitivity analyses letter
3B - 2 pages
Interoffice transmittal between government attorneys (Ward-Barbanes) with attached materials from Onondaga County
03Dec93
3B - 13 pages
Withhold transmittal page per POL 87(2)(g); release 12 pages
Letter and memo from Randy Ott w/DEC staff notes
3B - 6 pages
Release except redact notes per POL 87(2)(g)
Notes re: modeling
Ward letter to Onondaga County and 11/10/93 memo
10Nov93
3B - 5 pages
Release Ward letter (3 pages); withhold internal memo per POL 87(2)(g)
Duplicate of previous 11/10/93 memo
County response to government attorney letter w/ notes from government attorney, with attached 10/28/93 letter from Onondaga County Department of Drainage and Sanitation to County Attorney
29Oct93
3B - 7 pages
Memo from Ralph Manna, with attached 4 page outside correspondence
Withhold 3 page memo per POL 87(2)(g); release outside correspondence (4 pages)
06Oct93
Memo, with attached 6/25/93 memo
3B - 10 pages
Transmittal letter to government attorney with attached 9/15/93 memo and 8/1/93 memo
14Sep93
Memo w/notes from government attorney
04Aug93
10Mar93
Draft final report w/internal memo
3B - 8 pages
Draft response w/notes
20Jun85
3B - 9 pages
UFI response to DEC comments w/notes
23May85
Release but redact notes per POL 87(2)(g)
Memo with notes
23Apr85
Memo w/notes, with attached 12/20/84 memo
03Jan84
Copy of letter from R. Manna to J. Karanik re:SEQR
08Feb94
Transmittal from Randy Ott to Jay Bloomfield, with attached memo from Craig Smithgall to Jay Bloomfield, with notes
3B - 11 pages
Release but redact notes POL 87(2)(g)
04Jan94
6A - 2 pages
Memo with attached two-page 12/21/93 letter from J. Karanik of County of Onondaga Department of Drainage and Sanitation
6A - 4 pages
Withhold memo POL 87(2)(g); Release 2 page letter
03Jan94
6A - 5 pages
10Jan94
6A - 8 pages
02Nov93
6A - 1 page
Notes, with one-page chart
6A - 3 pages
POL 87(2)(g) but release one-page chart
30Dec96
6B - 1 page
Memo to government attorney
16Mar95
7 - 2 pages
POL 87(2)(a) POL 87(2)(g)
8B - 4 pages
8B - 2 pages
8B - 3 pages
Notes, with attached transmittal from governmental attorney Doug Ward
1-25-94 (notes) & 1-26-94 trans-mittal
7- 11 pages
Draft affidavit with notes
27Jan94
7 - 27 pages
Draft Order to Show Cause and TRO and Draft Memorandum of Law w/notes
20Jan94
7 - 32 pages
Memo, with notes
9- 16 pages
9 - 1 page
Draft revision calculations
9B - 3 pages
10 - 3 pages
04Feb92
10 - 23 pages
11C - 2 pages
DEC attorney notes
10Sep93
11C - 3 pages
07May93
18Oct91
Memo, w/attached chart and attached notes
04Jun96
11C - 4 pages
Memo w/notes, and related attachments
11C - 17 pages
17Jul95
Apr-1-97
ASLF letter to EPA w/ DEC staff notes
11C - 25 pages
Release, except redact notes per POL 87(2)(g)
Draft options memo w/notes
06Mar97
11C - 22 pages
Memo w/DEC notes from Robert Hennigan to Members of the Advisory Committee for the Onondaga Lake and Watershed Management Project
11C - 8 pages
12A - 2 pages
12A - 13 pages
12B - 30 pages
Memo on responsiveness summaryw/notes
12 - 2 pages
Transmittal to DEC attorney
26Jan99
Comments on proposed modification to SPDES permit, with transmittal letter and DEC staff notes
BS&K comments on proposed modification to SPDES permit, with DEC staff notes
ASLF comments on proposed modification to SPDES permit, with DEC staff notes
Ohl comments on proposed modification to SPDES permit
Hughes comments on proposed modification to SPDES permit
Effler comments on proposed modification to SPDES permit, with manuscript and DEC staff notes
15Aug85