Queen Anne’s Conservation Association (QACA) today requested a federal court in Washington, DC to issue an injunction ordering relevant government documents to be produced before the next public comment period on the Foreign Affairs Security Training Center (FASTC) proposed for Ruthsburg in Queen Anne`s County, MD.
The documents, relating to the siting, operations, and environmental impacts of FASTC, are ones that QACA originally sought 119 days ago from the Department of State (DOS) and the General Services Administration (GSA) pursuant to the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). After 100 days, QACA brought suit in federal court on April 30 challenging the two agencies’ right to continue to withhold production. When the agencies then formally refused to commit to produce the documents before the next phase of the environmental review of FASTC, QACA filed today’s preliminary injunction motion.
According to QACA’s filing, DOS has not provided a single document to QACA, and GSA has wrongly invoked FOIA exemptions to withhold all documents save a handful of ones already publicly available. Meanwhile, DOS and GSA are hurrying ahead with their abbreviated review of FASTC’s impacts under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), thereby unlawfully attempting to restrict public input into the NEPA process. This is happening, the filing asserts, notwithstanding the fact that public participation is, as both a practical and a legal matter, essential to a proper environmental review of the impacts of, and alternatives to, FASTC at Ruthsburg.
QACA Director of Communications Jay Falstad stated:
“DOS and GSA are persisting in what our lawyers describe as a ‘flagrant’ violation of FOIA and of President Obama’s clear, repeated directives as to how federal departments and agencies should respond to FOIA requests. We are left no choice but to ask the courts to secure for the people of Queen Anne’s County their right to public records that DOS and GSA are hiding.
“DOS and GSA are hiding the decision-making process that has gone into directing FASTC to Ruthsburg, and putting citizens at an impossible disadvantage when we try to have input into that process. It is clear that the reason for concealment is that the process itself won’t stand the light of day. The more the public finds out about what has happened here, the more questions they have – and the more answers they deserve.
“Think about it – what’s the justification for using stimulus money to locate a project that is not close to “shovel-ready” in a place with unemployment well below the national level, where it will destroy 2000 acres of prime farmland in a thriving, pristine agricultural area adjacent to a state park in an important watershed of the Chesapeake Bay? How can all this be squared with the announced policies of this Administration?
“It can’t be – so the DOS/GSA strategy has to be what it has been: stonewall the citizens and rush to a pre-determined judgment. This is a sorry spectacle, and what’s sorrier is that no one in the political branches of government is willing to intervene. EPA has told DOS/GSA not to short-circuit the environmental review, but they are being ignored. OMB grumbles, but only that. If the President knew about this, we’re sure he’d put a stop to it – but he does have other matters that need his attention.
“So here we are, in court, to save a community — and indeed a whole region – from government action that plainly contradicts that government’s own policies and objectives.”