Secrecy Still Gets In Way of Watch-dogging Hanford Clean-Up and Public comment: How do you comment on this?

Shown here are two of the many deleted pages from the pending USDOE Hanford hazardous waste permit (RCRA) application to Washington Ecology for the unlined radioactive waste burial grounds (trenches) and mixed radioactive-hazardous waste trenches. Heart of America Northwest requested the permit application to begin our review. We are concerned that USDOE was allowed to open the mixed waste trenches without a permit in the 1990s, and may want to use them for off-site waste.

When we requested the permit application under the state Public Records Act and federal Freedom of Information Act, USDOE and Washington Ecology both deleted all the information needed for review and comment on how USDOE would comply with hazardous waste rules to prevent, or in the event of: leaks, spills, leaky shipments, fires or explosions in the trenches (wastes include ignitable wastes). They even deleted the maps showing where the burial grounds, which are the subject of the proposed permit, are located. The same, or similar, maps are readily available on the web. However, without having access to them in the permit, it is not possible for us to know if monitoring and investigation of contamination will be in the right places.

Heart of America Northwest is appealing USDOE’s designation of their state permit application as an undisclosable secret document. The massive permit, which legislators and we have urged to include a ban on USDOE dumping any more offsite waste in landfills while existing wastes are out of compliance, is supposed to be issued in the coming months for public comment.

As you know, Washington Coalition for Open Government is a broad-based, non-profit, non-partisan organization, dedicated to defending and extending Washington's open government laws through educating the public and government officials, influencing legislation and cases before the courts, and recognizing notable acts in support of openness and transparency. We're governed by officers and a board of directors consisting of up to thirty volunteers with diverse backgrounds and interests, including individual citizen activists, government officials, and representatives of business, labor, media, law, and public policy organizations.

In addition to our officers and board members, WCOG has always called upon a group of trusted advisors who we consult as needed for a variety of purposes. These include former board members, leaders of organizations with aligned interests, prominent individuals in state policy and politics, and others who strongly support the mission, objectives and principles of the Washington Coalition for Open Government. The Board of Directors recently decided to formally organize this group as the Advisory Council of the Coalition.

Individuals may be nominated and appointed to the Advisory Council at any time by vote of the Board; there’s no fixed number of or fixed term for Advisory Council members. You'll see them listed on our website at
http://www.washingtoncog.org/whoarewe.html#advisorycouncil, and recognized in our annual report and other documents. Advisory Council members will help the Coalition in a number of ways, including providing wisdom and advise, fundraising, outreach to other organizations and communities, recruiting new members of the Coalition and of the board, serving as panel members at forums and conferences, facilitating positive relationships with government officials, helping to formulate our legislative agenda, authoring opinion articles for the media and other purposes, and many others.

The initial members of the WCOG Advisory Council are:

• John Carlson, KOMO Radio
• Enrique Cerna, Executive Producer, KCTS 9 Television
• John Hamer, Executive Director, Washington News Council
• Graham Johnson, former Executive Director, Washington State Public Disclosure Commission
• Greg Overstreet, Attorney, Allied Law Group
• Dave Ross, KIRO Radio
• Rowland Thompson, Executive Director, Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington

Petition Signatures Case Update

As you know, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the District Court restraining order blocking release of the Referendum 71 petition signatures under the Public Records Act. The Referendum 71 sponsors appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reinstated the restraining order until they have an opportunity to decide whether to review the case. The sponsors have submitted their brief trying to convince the Supreme Court to review the case, and now the State of Washington and WCOG are preparing our response briefs. It will cost several thousand dollars for copies and other charges related to filing our brief. Please consider making a special contribution to WCOG at http://www.washingtoncog.org/donate_form.htm before the end of the year to help defray these appeal costs. Thanks!

Benefits of becoming a WCOG member

Washington State was once the national leader in open government with our model Public Disclosure Act and Open Public Meetings Act guaranteeing public access to government records, meetings and the origins of campaign contributions. Those rights - your rights - have eroded. The Public Disclosure Act (now known as the Public Records Act) has had over 300 exemptions piled onto it, allowing agencies and officials to hide decisions and records that used to require public disclosure - now any agency can simply copy any document to an attorney and claim a disclosure exemption. The Washington Coalition for Open Government (WCOG) is working to restore Washington State to its leadership role in open government and ensure, through legislative and legal efforts, that Washington government remains accountable to the citizens it serves.
 
By joining WCOG, you not only obtain access to our members only email service, but you will also be helping to fund our legislative efforts, forums that train citizen activists and educate elected officials about their open government responsibilities, and interventions in critical court cases. 

Please join today by going to www.washingtoncog.org and clicking on "Join WCOG." We are truly a broad public interest organization. Our officers come from many political parties, from news media to elected officials to taxpayer and environmental groups. Democracy and accountability in government needs openness, and openness needs your support - please join WCOG today.

Elly Snow, Executive Director
Washington Coalition for Open Government
info@washingtoncog.org
206.782.0393