Whoa! How about the $290,000 bill the Army wants to charge an environmental organization to do search for its Freedom of Information Act request?
It’s not unusual to get a small fee for some FOIA requests and usually, members of the media can and often get their search fees waived. But not in thee case of the request by the Environmental Working Group.
It put in a public records request to the U.S. Army for data on 154 installations where water is contaminated by PFAS. The response it got?
“It would take an estimated 6,400 man-hours and cost you (the requester) an estimated $290,400 after the first free 100 pages provided by law to process your request,” wrote Paul DeAgostino, Army senior counsel.
He also denied the group’s fee waiver request.