On February 27th of 2023, there was an approximately one square mile spill of oil into Elk Creek adjacent to the Cultural Center in Crescent City. This spill originated from the Sheriff’s Office generator fuel tank which was installed in 1995. The tank spilled approximately 13 gallons into a storm drain where it reached the ocean. The day after the diesel fuel oil appeared on the water, Coast Guard officers were informed of the source of the leak. The Del Norte County Department of Building Maintenance and Parks sent several staff to clean up the sheen from Elk Creek, whilst also cleaning the oil water mixture from a secondary catch basin that tipped the Sheriff’s Office that the tank was leaking. After repairing the faulty line, booms were placed to soak up the remaining diesel coming from the storm drain. With all of the cleanup efforts they could manage complete, the Sheriff’s Office received a Notice of Federal Interest and a warning.
This full timeline took almost a year to get from the Coast Guard through a Freedom of Information Act request. I requested this information on March 30th. I had the information pertaining to the 13 gallons that spilled into Elk Creek, that booms were placed at the storm drain, that the leak did in fact come from the Sheriff’s Office and there was a large removal tank next to the Sheriff’s Office for some time. Everything else was hidden behind a wall of red-tape and Del Norte secrecy. First I called the local Environmental Health branch, who directed me to the Department of Maintenance, who then redirected me to the Environmental Health branch. I managed to break the circular call structure by asking the Coast Guard. I was very quickly brushed off however, the Coast Guard told me I needed to fill out a Freedom of Information Act request to get that information. So as a journalist, I did just that. I called back and forth with the Coast Guard for the full year, with my contact at the San Francisco branch equally as perplexed by the red-tape as I was.
Only after I had voluntarily elected to redact all personal information pertaining to the case from my request by calling a higher-up and stating as much, did the Coast Guard provide the information I was looking for. The final report leaves a lot to be desired. Above are official pictures from the released documents. Most of the information I sought was within the purview of personal information, and the actual numbers in the report were already known to me. The only reason I found out about the booms, tank and the source of the leak originally was through an anonymous source who contacted KFUG. The source told us none of the clean up was done with any documenting paperwork on the part of County Maintenance. The Sheriff’s Department, Department of Maintenance, and Coast Guard were willing to sweep this under the rug. This is a symptom of the good old boys club that our local government is known for. If we hadn’t been contacted by someone on the inside, we never would have found out a lot of this information.
If you need to find out information from a public agency and they’re pushing you aside, here’s how to make a Freedom of Information Act Request. First, see if you can find the information on the public internet, as some things have already been made public for your viewing. Assuming you did not find what you were looking for on the public internet, determine what agency has the information you seek. Each agency handles its own FOIA requests, and having the correct agency in mind gets you one step closer to finding that information. After determining which agency has your information visit foia.gov/#learn-more. This webpage will lead you through the rest of the FOIA request process. There are no immediate fees to make an FOIA request, nor is there any special form that you need to fill out to file the request. Fees may be assessed as the request grows in complexity. When writing your request, be as specific as possible. Good luck out there truth-seekers.
