McClellan Ecological Seepage Situation Mary Fisher Charles Yarbrough v. Frank C. Carlucci, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Defense, Defendant

Requesters McClellan Ecological Seepage Situation (MESS), a nonprofit association, and Charles Yarbrough and Mary Fisher, individual members of the association, requested that McClellan Air Force Base officials waive all search and copying fees on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The fees were reduced by twenty-five percent. Requesters sued the Secretary of Defense (Secretary) to obtain a full fee waiver. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Secretary. We affirm.

I

Requesters submitted a FOIA request to McClellan Air Force Base officials. The FOIA request asked for information about water pollution at McClellan Air Force Base (AFB); that information consisted of twenty-five categories of records. The FOIA request also asked for a waiver of search and copying fees pursuant to 5 U.S. C. § 552(a)(4)(A) (1982, amended 1986).

The AFB’s FOIA officer replied to the requests. He noted that the individual re-questers were among individuals who had filed claims against the Air Force for damage and injury from toxic waste disposal. He then posed twenty-three questions to requesters, the answers to which he deemed pertinent to a decision to waive or…