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Oust manufacturer sues for BLM data
The lawsuit, filed in early October, alleges BLM failed to provide complete records despite a number of requests for them filed by E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., or DuPont, under the federal Freedom of Information Act. In its complaint, asking for a preliminary and permanent injunction enjoining BLM from improperly withholding agency records, DuPont said more than 300 persons in Idaho have publicly announced plans to sue the company over alleged crop damage they say occurred in the spring of 2001, when BLM treated rangelands with the herbicide after rangeland fires. The complaint states DuPont filed written requests for the information under FOIA on July 12, July 27 and Oct. 12 in 2001, and again on Feb. 15, April 18, and June 3 in 2002. “In its responses to those FOIA requests, BLM wrongfully withheld and/or failed to segregate non-exempt portions from numerous documents requested by DuPont. In addition, BLM failed to produce documents responsive to a number of DuPont’s FOIA requests as a result of its failure to perform an adequate search for responsive records,” the lawsuit said. The lawsuit asks the court to require BLM to provide DuPont with all the documents originally requested, and a record identifying and describing documents being withheld by the federal agency under claim of privilege with sufficient description for the court and the company to ascertain if the claim of privilege is justified. The lawsuit also seeks attorneys’ fees and costs for the company. The lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal actions and compensation payments related to BLM’s spraying Oust onto rangelands burned in wildfires in 2001. The agency applied the herbicide in an effort to control weed invasions, but some Oust, or dirt contaminated with the chemical, drifted onto nearby cropfields, causing extensive losses. Idaho growers in Bingham, Blaine, Jerome, Lincoln, Minidoka and Power counties say they suffered $95 million worth of crop yield and quality losses when the spray drifted onto sugarbeet, potato, barley, wheat, corn and alfalfa fields. On Oct. 15, the Farm Service Agency began issuing payments totaling $5 million to growers able to show over a 25 percent yield loss related to drifting Oust. Farmers complain that doesn’t begin to cover their total losses, and that quality losses were excluded. Affected growers hope to collect additional compensation through a lawsuit filed against DuPont and BLM. |