Essential to our successful human health and environmental protection efforts is access to information. EcoRights frequently uses the federal Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"), and comparable state laws, such as California’s Public Records Act and Florida’s Sunshine Law, to gain access to public records. To ensure that citizens continue to have access to crucial information, one of EcoRights’ missions is furthering transparency and accessibility in government and public institutions.
Below are samples of our freedom of information campaigns and links to public documents obtained through our efforts:
National Marine Fisheries Service – Anadromous Fish Information
After years of frustration in obtaining timely and complete information from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) under FOIA for our efforts to protect endangered and threatened salmon and steelhead, Ecorights embarked on a campaign to restore the openness in government to NMFS that FOIA was meant to secure. FOIA's principles of openness and accountability are inherent in the democratic ideal: “The basic purpose of FOIA is to ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed.” NLRB v. Robbins Tire & Rubber Co., 437 U.S. 214, 242 (1978). Ecorights is working closely on this campaign with other environmental groups that similarly need information from NMFS to do their work effectively. NMFS dilatory and incomplete responses, and its excessive monetary charges for document “searches” and production have thwarted these purposes.
Along with co-plaintiff Our Children’s Earth Foundation (“OCE”), we have filed three cases in Federal Court seeking to compel NMFS to comply with their obligations under FOIA. In two of these cases, U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti has issued three orders granting Plaintiffs’ summary judgment, holding NMFS in violation of FOIA. See Our Children’s Earth Foundation, et al. v. NMFS, et al., Case No. 14-1130 SC, 85 F.Supp.3d 1074 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 30, 2015)(Order Granting In Part and Denying In Part Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment, Dkt 59, March 30, 2015); Our Children’s Earth Foundation, et al. v. NMFS, et al., Case Nos. 14-1130 SC and 14-4365 SC, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94997 (N.D. Cal. July 20, 2015)(Order Granting In Part and Denying In Part Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment, Dkt 70, July 20, 2015); and Our Children’s Earth Foundation, et al. v. NMFS, et al., Case Nos. 14-4365 SC, 14-1130 SC, and 15-2558 SC (N.D. Cal. October 21, 2015) (ordering NMFS to produce documents requested by OCE and ERF and to justify its claim that it is “backlogged” and address how it is fixing the problem, Dkt 13, Oct. 21, 2015).
These orders recount how NMFS has violated FOIA’s deadlines, often by wide margins, for every FOIA request sent by EcoRights and OCE, and they will foster public access to government information in the future. The following link is an article discussing the important precedent-setting nature of EcoRights’ and OCE’s recent court victory:
http://www.cnsenvironmentallaw.com/2015/10/27/3370.htm
For more information about this campaign or to share your or your organization's personal experiences with obtaining documents from NMFS via FOIA, contact Christopher Sproul at: [email protected].
Note: EcoRights has recently sent additional FOIA requests to NMFS seeking additional information that will shed further light on the agency's FOIA compliance and will help EcoRights to lobby for reform of the agency's response to public requests for information. Copies of these FOIA requests are available and NMFS's responses to these requests will be available on NMFS's website, FOIAonline. See https://foiaonline.regulations.gov/foia/action/public/home.
Further Anadromous Fish Information Obtained From National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sheds Light on Management of Yuba River Dams and Consequent Harm to Imperiled Species
Having been, yet again, met with agency intransigence in responding to FOIA requests, EcoRights filed a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to correct their longstanding failure to produce requested records. Through extensive negotiations, EcoRights eventually was able to obtain a trove of thousands of pages of records regarding the Corps’ ongoing, long-term attempts to shirk its Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) duties to protect ESA-listed fish species in the Yuba River. To further look into these issues, on May 8, 2023, EcoRights submitted two FOIA requests directly to the Corps and two FOIA requests to NMFS, where NMFS referred certain records to the Corps for review and production. Both the Corps and NMFS violated FOIA with regard to these FOIA requests through their failures to timely issue valid final determinations and produce responsive records, to provide current estimated completion dates, to complete FOIA-compliant searches, to produce all non-exempt records, and to produce the requested records in the requested form or format. These records are highly relevant to a recent ESA consultation finding that the Corps' proposed continuation of actions at the relevant dams would jeopardize the ongoing survival of these species and to ongoing litigation seeking to protect these species from harm. The produced records are available at the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/jrjld04gn13q10zybj7p1/AG2Ps5OqYDnUsiPlTrRiefA?rlkey=geposx38lptyu8iyaotdirw8g&st=75d8h0g8&dl=0