Justice urges court to throw out Riverkeeper’s Hanford FOIA case

The U.S. Department of Justice, representing the Department of Energy this week urged a federal magistrate in Oregon to throw out a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought by Columbia Riverkeeper.

Columbia Riverkeeper sued DOE in mid-June in the U.S. District Court of Oregon alleging FOIA violations over the Joe Biden administration’s Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative at the Hanford Site in Washington state.

The DOE Office of Hearings and Appeals received Riverkeeper’s appeal of an adverse FOIA decision and rejected the appeal in January of this year, Portland-based Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Keller, said in a defense motion filed Monday.

While Justice said it has not so far turned over all the documents that Columbia Riverkeeper wants, it said the government has acted in good faith and the lawsuit should be thrown out.

“The FOIA request does not reasonably describe the records sought and as such fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted,” according to the Justice Department filing. “Plaintiff is not entitled to compel the production of any records exempt from disclosure by one or more exemptions to the FOIA” statute, Justice goes on to say.

In the suit, the environmental group has sought information surrounding DOE’s request for qualifications for non-carbon electricity generation at Hanford.

The clean energy initiative, which appears to be dead in the second Donald Trump administration, sought to lease 19,000 acres at the Hanford Site in Washington state for power projects. The measure also cited the potential for new nuclear-energy infrastructure.

Energy generation proposals for Hanford threatens “to undermine critical efforts to restore the land and waters at and around Hanford,” Simone Anter, senior attorney & Hanford program director for Columbia Riverkeeper, said in the June press release.

Hanford is considered the most contaminated site in the Western Hemisphere and the federal government should keep its focus on remediation, according to the Columbia Riverkeeper complaint.

The case is overseen by a federal magistrate, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jolie Russo.