updated 1/25/2005
Requesting Information Under
New York's Freedom of Information Law (FOIL)
Requests for records can be made to any state or local government office or agency by letter, fax or email. Your communication should say the request is being made "pursuant to the Freedom of Information Law."
Citizens can use FOIL to monitor a facility's compliance with the terms and conditions of its permits, including compliance with all applicable regulations. This can often be the quickest way to get a facility to stop creating a nuisance. Because most environmental regulations and permits implement federal environmental programs, discovering noncompliance may support a citizen enforcement action in court. Facility managers know that records of noncompliance subject their company to liability for such an enforcement action.
To monitor compliance, you may request from the DEC monitoring, testing & compliance reports made by DEC, or made by the facility and submitted to the DEC. You may also request correspondence between DEC and facility operators, which often discusses incidents of noncompliance or violations of the law. All such documents are public and available by request under New York's Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).
You may be required to pay 25 cents per page for photocopies, but you may review the documents at DEC offices at no charge and may be able to take them out and copy them yourself more cheaply.
Send the DEC's FOIL form (link above) to the DEC Regional Office in which the facility is located. If you know the Division that has the information you want (e.g., Fish & Wildlife, Solid Waste, Air), call ahead and speak to the division director about what you're looking for. You'll need to specify fairly carefully what documents you want on the form (e.g., by dates). The division director can help you identify these documents. Then mail or fax the form to the director or, if you don't know who, to the FOIL officer.
