More Secret CRS Backgrounders Written at Public Expense

September 19, 2012–The Congressional Research Service regularly produces objective and informative background material on matters of interest to environmental journalists. Because Congress refuses to release these reports to the public, the WatchDog links to leaked versions published by the Project on Government Secrecy of the Federation of American Scientists.

Navy Sought To Keep Treasure Island Radiation Concerns Out of Written Record

September 5, 2012–Documents obtained by the Bay Citizen, an award-winning nonprofit news organization, showed Navy officials responsible for ensuring the site was properly cleaned up trying to convince California state health officials not to put their radiation concerns in writing.

Despite High Court, Navy Keeps WA Town in Dark on Explosion Threat

February 22, 2012–A landmark Supreme Court decision awarded Port Townsend residents the right to know about the potential location of explosives on the Indian Island Naval Magazine near their town. After losing the case, the Defense Department bolstered its legal grounds for secrecy by asking Congress to slip into the 2012 Defense Authorization an amendment creating a new statutory exemption to FOIA for the DOD.  

Lejeune Secrecy May Have Caused Dead Marines

January 25, 2012–CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has been investigating a Navy cover-up of cancer-causing drinking water at its Lejeune, NC, base. Now, Project on Government Oversight has released a January 5, 2012, letter from Marine Major General J.A. Kessler asking ATSDR to redact its report in the name of "force protection."

Enviros Claim "Secret Plan" To Use Weapons Plutonium in Reactors

February 9, 2011–The environmental group Friends of the Earth got the information that an electric utility wants to use surplus weapons plutonium in a commercial power reactor through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Energy Department.

High Court Mulls Public's Right To Know of Threats to Its Safety

December 15, 2010–In the case of Milner v. Navy, a Puget Sound resident and activist sought information that would identify the locations and potential blast ranges of explosive ordnance stored at Washington’s Naval Magazine Indian Island.

Beach Nourishment: Supreme Court To Decide Who Owns the New Sand

June 24, 2009–When governments or communities pay to replenish beaches along privately owned beachfront property — or create new beaches by trucking in sand — what does that mean for the landowners' waterfront rights and property value?

"Crime Scene Cleanup" in Kelly AFB Toxics Case

June 3, 2009–New evidence indicates the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry fails to protect communities from dangers such as the now-disappearing plumes of toxic groundwater carrying cancer-causing chemicals far beyond the Kelly Air Force Base near San Antonio, TX.

Wide Range of Environmental Issues Before Supreme Court

October 15, 2008–US Supreme Court to hear six cases with important environmental implications. Issues involved are: use of sonar in Naval training; logging in California; power plant operation; disposal of mining wastes; royalties paid to the Navajo Nation on coal leases; and liability under Superfund law.

States Backing Off Enforcement of Toxic Military Site Cleanups

October 1, 2008–The US military has created at least 31,487 toxic sites at 4,624 military facilities or properties. Many of these have been cleaned up to some degree over the past few decades, but 7,056 still haven't had any cleanup, nor is there an accepted cleanup plan in place, according to the Sept. 18, 2008, testimony of Wayne Arny (703-695-2880), Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, before the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee.