Envtl. Integrity Project v. SBA, No. 13-01962, 2015 WL 5118504 (D.D.C. Aug. 28, 2015) (Cooper, J.)

Envtl. Integrity Project v. SBA, No. 13-01962, 2015 WL 5118504 (D.D.C. Aug. 28, 2015) (Cooper, J.)

Re: Request for records concerning OMB review of EPA proposed update to Effluent Limitation Guidelines

Disposition: Granting remainder of defendant's motion for summary judgment

• Exemption 5, Deliberative Process Privilege:  "Having reviewed each of the eleven documents submitted by SBA, the Court concludes that the deliberative process privilege applies to ten of those documents, and that the remaining document is unresponsive to Plaintiffs' FOIA request."  The court finds that certain documents "are classic examples of the types of communications that the deliberative process privilege is designed to protect."  "These documents reflect SBA's comments related to EPA's methodology, timing, and additional factors for EPA to consider; requests for clarification; draft calculations; analysis of EPA's assumptions and calculations; discussion of commenters' critiques and questions; and suggestions for improving the draft regulations."  "Each of these documents relates directly to the decisionmaking process and either includes or describes SBA's 'recommendations, draft documents, proposals, [or] suggestions' and 'reflect[s] the personal opinions of the writer....'"  Additionally, the court finds that one document "does not directly involve any SBA recommendation, proposal, or suggestion[,]" but "[r]eleasing this document would . . . likely expose aspects of SBA's decisionmaking process" because "[i]t discusses the format in which SBA sought various EPA data and indicates how SBA was going about the process of developing its comments."  The court does find that "[t]he deliberative process privilege cannot shield [one document] from disclosure," "[b]ut because its contents bear no relationship to Plaintiffs' FOIA request, it is a non-responsive document and need not be disclosed."