Agencies conceal strategy for crisis
Twenty years ago, in the wake of the world’s greatest chemical plant catastrophe in Bhopal, India, a law was passed by Congress requiring every community to develop, update and make public plans for action in cases of chemical or hazardous spills.
In recent weeks, hundreds of journalists and volunteers from across the nation asked to see their community’s Comprehensive Emergency Response Plans, as they are known. More than a third of these requests were denied, including in Kootenai County, where a county official said releasing the information would put the community at risk of terrorism.
Spokane County, however, posts its report online, as do several other government agencies in Washington, including the cities of Puyallup and Tacoma.
“I don’t have anything to hide,” said Tom Mattern, Spokane County’s deputy director of emergency management.
During the recent nationwide audit, only 44 percent of the 404 requests resulted in the complete reports. The audit was sponsored by the American Society of Newspaper Editors-Sunshine Week, the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, the National Freedom of Information Coalition and the Society of Environmental Journalists. Journalists did not identify themselves as reporters when requesting copies of the emergency response plans.
The plans are required under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986. Although the law offers provisions for withholding sensitive information, Congress requires the plans to be kept open to the public.
Kootenai County repeatedly denied The Spokesman-Review’s request to view the plan. Sandy Von Behren, the county’s director of emergency management, initially told a reporter from the newspaper, “We don’t need the bad guys knowing what our plan of attack is.”
A written request made last month also was denied.
On Friday, an attorney for Kootenai County denied the request again, explaining in a letter, “The release of the requested information will jeopardize the safety of persons and the public.”
Spokane County’s report details how agencies should respond to everything from floods and flu pandemics to volcanoes and chemical spills. The plan even required a terrorism threat assessment in advance of the recent ice skating championships held in the city.
Mattern, who directs the county’s emergency management office, said the document contains critical information during times of disaster. “It provides a template for all the response organizations,” he said.
Journalists participating in the audit reported varying degrees of success around the nation. An official at the Washington Department of Ecology would not give a copy of the plan to a reporter from The Olympian, saying it was in “draft form” and could not be released to the public.
Later, the reporter’s written request was denied.
A Denver Post reporter was denied the plan because an official told him there was “a rash of people around the country posing as reporters and asking for emergency response plans.”
Some public officials alerted police or ran background checks on requestors. Terrorism was mentioned repeatedly as a reason for keeping the plans secret.