FOIA - Is There a Processing Fee?
YES- EPA is authorized to charge requesters a processing fee to recover the direct cost to the Agency. Services charged includes search time, review time, cost to duplicate records, certification/authentication of records and other direct costs incurred by the Agency to respond to your request.
EPA's FOIA Fee Schedule has been revised and effective as of November 5, 2002
SEARCH TIME AND REVIEW TIME
- Calculated in 15 minute increments
- The fee is dependent upon personnel conducting search and review of records.
- This applies to both manual and computer searches and reviews.
- You are subject to fees even if no records are found or if records are found but withheld from disclosure under FOIA exemption(s).
| Clerical Personnel | $4 - per 15 minutes |
| Professional Personnel | $7 - per 15 minutes |
| Managerial | $10.25 - per 15 minutes |
DUPLICATION FEES
| Page Duplication | $.15 - per page |
| Disk | $1.00 - each |
| Microfilm | $7.50 - each |
| Certification/Authentication of Records | Actual cost to agency |
Other services - exact cost to the agency for special services, e.g., graphics (color photos, oversize map duplication, audio/visual cassettes, etc..), certification and special shipping/mailing of requested records will be charged to the requester.
REQUESTER FEE CATEGORY
Listed below are the four fee categories a requester may fall under:
- COMMERCIAL - search time, review time and duplication
- EDUCATIONAL/SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION - first 100 pages provided free of charge, search/review fee NOT applicable for this category
- REPRESENTATIVE OF THE NEWS MEDIA - first 100 pages provided free of charge, search/review fee NOT applicable for this category
- OTHER - first 100 pages provided free of charge, no charge for first two hours of search time, review fee NOT applicable for this category
ASSURANCE OF PAYMENT
Your FOIA request letter will serve as your assurance to pay fees between $14.00 and $25. The Agency will process your request and bill you accordingly (unless your request is assigned one of the special fee deduction category). However, if we determine the cost could exceed $25, we will contact you to receive a written assurance of payment for the exact or estimated cost to respond to your request. Your request will be placed on HOLD pending receipt of your written assurance of payment. To avoid this delay, you should specify in your FOIA request, a dollar amount you are willing to pay.
PAYMENT PROCEDURES
| Payment for Region 10 FOIAs should be sent to EPA Region 10, P.O. Box 360903M, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15251.Payment must be in the form of a check or money order payable to the U.S. EPA. To ensure proper credit of your payment, please write the FOIA Request Identification Number (RIN) on your check or money order and return your payment with "TREASURY" copy of the bill. |
Payments not received within 30 days, interest at the rate of 5% begins to accrue from the date of the bill through the date of payment will be assessed. A late payment handling charge of $15.00 will be imposed after 30 days with an additional charge of $15.00 for each subsequent 30-day period. A 6% per annum penalty will be applied on any principal amount not paid within 90 days of the due date.
FEE WAIVER
See U.S. Department of Justice, Freedom of Information Act Guide & Privacy Act Overview, May 2002 Edication, page 589
Pursuant to the fee waiver statutory requirements set forth at 5 U.S.C. ยง 552(a)(4)(A)(iii), documents shall be furnished without any charge, or at a reduced charge, if disclosure of the information is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government and is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requestor. requestors asking for a fee waiver or reduction must present information in support of such request. The mere fact that a fee waiver has been requested does not automatically mean that a fee waiver should be granted - even if the requestor is a private citizen, representative of the media or a nonprofit public interest organization. Requests for fee waivers must be considered on a case-by-case basis. The granting of a fee waiver for one request does not mean that a fee waiver will automatically be granted on a later related request from the same requester. In order to determine whether the statutory requirements are met, the Agency must consider six factors summarized below:
1. The subject matter of the requested records must specifically concern identifiable operations of activities of the government. Request for records for their informational content alone does not satisfy this factor.
2. The disclosure of the requested records must be "likely to contribute" to the public understanding of government operations. The requested records must be meaningfully informative in relation to the subject matter of the request and should not already be in public domain.
3. The disclosure of requested records must contribute to "public understanding of government operations." Disclosure must contribute to the understanding of the public at large, as opposed to the understanding of the requester or a narrow segment of interested persons. One must demonstrate with reasonable specificity the ability to understand, extract and convey the requested information as well as the ability and intent to actively disseminate the information to the general public.
4. The disclosure must contribute "significantly" to public understanding of government operations or activities. On balance, the public's understanding of government operations must be significantly greater after disclosure in comparison to the public's understanding prior to disclosure.
5. The extent to which disclosure will serve the requester's commercial interest, if any. Status as a nonprofit organization or representative of the news media is not alone sufficient to satisfy this requirement.
6. The extent to which the identified public interest in the disclosure outweighs the requester's commercial interest.
Requesters wanting a fee waiver or fee reduction should respond, in sufficient detail, to the above six factors in their FOIA request by responding to the fee waiver questions below:
(i) A clear statement of your interest in the requested documents;
(ii) The use proposed for the documents and whether you will derive income or other benefit from such use;
(iii) A statement of how the public will benefit from such use from the release of the requested documents;
(iv) If specialized use of the documents or information is contemplated, a statement of your qualifications that are relevant to the specialized use;
(v) A statement indicating how you plan to disseminate the documents or information to the public; and
(vi) Any additional information you deem relevant to your request for a fee waiver.
The Fee Waiver Form is included on the FOIA Request Form.
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