Davidson v. E.P.A., CIV. A. 00-1085 (RCL).

• Decision Date: 20 October 2000
• Docket Number: No. CIV. A. 00-1085 (RCL).,CIV. A. 00-1085 (RCL).
• Parties: Robert DAVIDSON, Plaintiff, v. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

121 F.Supp.2d 38

Robert DAVIDSON, Plaintiff, v. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, Defendant.

No. CIV. A. 00-1085 (RCL).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

October 20, 2000.

Robert Dale Davidson, Pro Se, for Plaintiff.

W. Mark Nebeker, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Washington, DC, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

LAMBERTH, District Judge.

This Freedom of Information Act case is before the Court on defendant's motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, for summary judgment. In its motion, defendant Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") asserts that it located no records responsive to plaintiff's request. In a FOIA case, the Court may award summary judgment solely on the basis of information provided in affidavits or declarations when the affidavits or declarations describe "the documents and the justifications for nondisclosure with reasonably specific detail, demonstrate that the information withheld logically falls within the claimed exemption, and are not controverted by either contrary evidence in the record nor by evidence of agency bad faith." Military Audit Project v. Casey, 656 F.2d 724, 738 (D.C.Cir.1981).

In support of defendant's motion, the agency offers the declaration of Stephanie Kercheval, the FOIA Officer for EPA Region 10 in Seattle, Washington. In order to be entitled to summary judgment for its "no records" response, defendant must establish that it located no records responsive to plaintiff's request after a reasonable search using "methods reasonably expected to produce the information requested." Oglesby v. United States Dep't of the Army, 920 F.2d 57, 68 (D.C.Cir.1990). The declaration need not "set forth with meticulous documentation the details of an epic search for the requested records," Perry v. Block, 684 F.2d 121, 127 (D.C.Cir.1982), but must show "that the search method was reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents." Weisberg v. United States Dep't of Justice, 745 F.2d 1476, 1485 (D.C.Cir. 1984).

Plaintiff requested a specific toxic waste manifest allegedly issued by the EPA in 1991. He has provided a date on which hazardous waste was transported from the site (December 22-23, 1991), a precise location on Ede Road in Linn County, Oregon, the name of the company that transported the hazardous waste (Chemical Waste Management of the Northwest), and the waste generator's EPA identification number. Defendant states that the Office of Environmental Cleanup and the Office of Waste and Chemical Management for EPA Region 10 each conducted a search and found no records responsive to plaintiff's request. See Declaration of Stephanie Kercheval ("Kercheval Decl."), ¶¶ 12, 15. This is precisely the type of description that the Court of Appeals has described as "conclusory and unilluminating" and therefore unacceptable. Steinberg v. United States Dep't of Justice, 23 F.3d 548, 552 (D.C.Cir.1994).

The EPA does not explain why responsive records would likely be located only in the offices to which plaintiff's FOIA request was assigned and none others. Moreover, the agency does not identify which records were searched in the two offices and what terms or methods were used in conducting those searches.¹ See Steinberg v. United States Dep't of Justice, 23 F.3d 548, 552 (D.C.Cir.1994) (description of search inadequate where it fails "to describe in any detail what records were...