Rumple Report Released

At the same time, the men accused the EPA of minimizing the risk of amphibole asbestos in documents distributed to Libby residents, and claimed the EPA was preparing to pull out of the town without having done a full cleanup, or ever having really studied the risks posed by amphibole asbestos.

Eventually, PEER filed a FOIA request for the documents, as the Independent continued writing stories about the issue, and Henningsen, Troyer, Maynard, Sullivan and others continued to nag the EPA

Over the years, the OIG’s rationale for not releasing the report changed. It initially refused to confirm or deny the existence of the memo, then in August of 2006 it told Montana Sen. Conrad Burns that the memo did not exist.

In August of 2007, the agency told PEER “The Rumple document was compiled in the course of, and relates to, an open criminal investigation…” and could therefore not be released.

In the summer of 2008, PEER learned that the criminal case was closed, and again requested the report, but the agency then insisted it could not be released because it was “pre-decisional,” i.e. it was part of a decision making process between a federal employee and his superior, and therefore off-limits. At the time, PEER chose not to contest that determination in court.

When President Obama announced that his administration would reverse Bush-era FOIA policies, PEER filed a third time. OIG initially rebuffed the request, claiming it would be unable to even make an “initial determination” on whether it could release the memo for several months. But when PEER filed a lawsuit on April 21, citing the administration’s new stance, the OIG released the report within days.

“As to why OIG released it,” says Jeff Ruch, executive director of PEER, ” I assume that it was a combination of a) not wanting to embarrass the administration or get crosswise with it; and b) the legal weakness of their [pre-decisional claim], perhaps coupled with an early indication that [the Department of Justice] might not be willing to defend it in court.”

After hearing of the report’s release, Sullivan told Asbestos Watch, “Regardless of what it says, it’s an indication that you can fight back, although it may take you a lot of years to fight back. Understand that the first conversation I had with anybody in the inspector general’s office… I was told that Cory Rumple did not exist.”

Despite the release, he says, “I think the EPA is a hugely broken organization.”

“Why do you have to fight for what, seven years to have a risk analysis in your town, to tell you if you’re in danger or not?” he asks, adding “and you have to go through this type of stuff… this cloak and dagger crap.”

To learn more about what the document contains, click here, or navigate to the next feature story from our home page.

Page : 1 2ALL