Documents / Official release
This file comes from the Clinton Presidential Library's National Security Council records. It holds Presidential Determination No. 96-54, dated September 1996, together with the memoranda that led to it. The determination renews for one year an exemption under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act for the Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada. The exemption shields classified information from disclosure during the Kasza v. Browner and Frost v. Perry litigation, which was on appeal, but it does not waive environmental standards.
“The Pentagon”1 page
6505 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON September 27, 1996 ACTION MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT THROUGH: THE EXECUTIVE CLERK L7^^ FROM: ANTHONY SUBJECT: Purpose Background Presidential Determination on RCRA Exemption for the Operating Location at Groom Lake cc: Vice President Chief of Staff To continue to exempt the Air Force from public disclosure requirements concerning the inspection and inventory of hazardous waste at the Air Force "operating location near Groom Lake." ■ fo That ruling is now being appealed, as is plaintiffs' challenge to the sufficiency of your original exemption. In the interim, Deputy Secretary of Defense White and Secretary of the Air Force Widnall recommend that you renew the exemption to provide continued protection for national security information while the matter is on appeal. EPA Administrator Browner and Department of Justice, Environmental and Natural Resources Division concur in this recommendation as does Katie McGinty. As with last year's exemption, the attached document is worded narrowly, to exempt the location only from disclosure requirements and not from applicable environmental standards. ■X On September 29, 1995, you issued an exemption under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) protecting from disclosure classified information regarding an Air Force facility near Groom Lake, Nevada. By statute, the exemption is effective for one year, unless renewed. As a result, the attached exemption should / be signed by September 29. The exemption was necessitated by litigation over RCRA compliance at the facility. While ruling that the information in question was appropriately classified, the Federal district court ruled that under RCRA classified information could only be protected from public disclosure pursuant to a Presidential exemption.
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Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 13 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.