Published Friday, July 20, 2001, in the San Jose Mercury News
Secrecy veils land deal
U.S. AGENCY WON'T RELEASE DOCUMENTS ON SALT POND PURCHASE
The Fish and Wildlife Service cites ``trade secrets'' in refusing
to divulge appraisal and other details to the Mercury News
on a federal plan to spend up to $300 million for bay habitat.
BY [61]PAUL ROGERS
Mercury News
Details will remain secret, at least for now, of a federal proposal to
spend as much as $300 million in what would be the most expensive
public land purchase for wildlife habitat in Bay Area history.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has rejected a Freedom of
Information Act request by the San Jose Mercury News asking for
appraisals and other documents for a plan by the government to buy up
to 19,000 acres of industrial salt ponds ringing the South Bay.
In letters during the past two weeks, officials at the service's
regional headquarters in Portland said the documents are part of
``internal deliberations'' and confidential ``trade secrets'' that are
exempt from public records laws.
Several environmental groups and First Amendment lawyers, however, say
the public has a right to know what it is buying and any cleanup costs
for which it might be liable before the purchase is finalized.
``It is critical to the public interest to have this information,''
said James Chadwick, an attorney for the Mercury News. ``The
government may make good deals, and it may make bad deals. But the
public can't trust the government if it can't see what it is doing.''
Chadwick said the newspaper will appeal.
Cargill, a Minneapolis-based agribusiness giant, has offered to sell
much of the shoreline where it now operates salt evaporation ponds.
Scientists and environmental groups say the purchase offers a chance
to restore much of the bay's southern edges to tidal marsh conditions
not seen since the 1850s.
Congress would have to approve funding. Cargill and the government
have not signed an option or settled on a price.
Howard Stark, chief of the Fish and Wildlife Service's real estate
office in Sacramento, said two recent appraisals of the property place
its value at more than $300 million.
In May, the Mercury News requested copies of both appraisals -- one
completed by an appraiser hired by Cargill and the other from an
appraiser hired by the Fish and Wildlife Service. The newspaper also
asked for a contamination study that Cargill furnished to the
government.
Several hundred acres of the property contain toxic bittern -- liquids
10 times as salty as the ocean and illegal to release into the bay
under the Clean Water Act. Cargill has said it will remove the bittern
before a sale. It is unclear whether there are other toxics issues.
``As part of the appraisal process, Cargill has voluntarily supplied
significant confidential business information about their firm and
marketing strategies,'' wrote Carolyn Bohan, regional chief of the
national wildlife refuge system in Portland. ``They have insisted that
this information remain confidential.''
But Terry Francke, general counsel for the First Amendment Coalition
in Sacramento, said the government should release the reports after an
agreement is signed but before Congress votes on funds.
``There ought to be a sunshine period, however brief, before a costly
decision is irreversible,'' he said.
Environmentalists agreed.
``Appraisals are the Achilles' heels of public land purchases,'' said
Florence LaRiviere, co-founder of the Citizens Committee to Complete
the Refuge, in Palo Alto. ``We don't find out until way too late to
comment. As a result, we don't have any control over whether the
public monies are being spent in an appropriate way.''
On Thursday the Mercury News reported that Sen. Dianne Feinstein,
D-Calif., is working on a compromise in which Congress, the state and
Bay Area foundations would pay Cargill roughly $100 million for 13,000
to 15,000 acres.
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Contact Paul Rogers at progers@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5045.
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