Documents / Official release
This Clinton Presidential Library file from the National Security Council holds Presidential Determination No. 97-35, dated September 26, 1997. It renews the exemption for the Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada, under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The file also contains memoranda from Samuel Berger, James Baker, the Deputy Secretary of Defense and Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall. They describe the Kasza v. Browner litigation and say the exemption shields classified information from disclosure but leaves environmental standards in force.
“The Pentagon”3 pages
SUBJECT: The Secretary of the Air Force is authorized and directed to publish this determination in the Federal Register. MEMORANDUM FOR THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY THE SECRETARY OF THE AIR FORCE Nothing herein is intended to: (a) imply that in the absence of such a Presidential exemption, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) or any other provision of law permits or requires disclosure of classified information to unauthorized persons; or (b) limit the applicability or enforcement of any requirement of law applicable to the Air Force’s operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada, except those provisions, if any, that would require the disclosure of classified information. Presidential Determination on Classified Information Concerning the Air Force’s Operating Location Near Groom Lake, Nevada I find that it is in the paramount interest of the United States to exempt the United States Air Force’s operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada (the subject of litigation in Kasza v. Browner (D. Nev. CV-S-94-795-PMP) and Frost v. Perry (D. Nev. CV-S-94- 714-PMP)) from any applicable requirement for the disclosure to unauthorized persons of classified information concerning that operating location. Therefore, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 6961(a), I hereby exempt the Air Force’s operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada, from any Federal, State, interstate or local provision respecting control and abatement of solid waste or hazardous waste disposal that would require the disclosure of classified information concerning that operating location to any unauthorized person. This exemption shall be effective for the full one-year statutory period. Presidential Determination No.
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Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 24 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.