By admin 
Gov. Henry McMaster is criticizing a state agency for telling a citizen it would cost $2.4 million to fulfill an open records request for public documents about pollution at an elementary school.
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McMaster labeled the Department of Environmental Services estimated cost “ridiculous’’ and unwarranted.
“That should never have been sent out like that,’’ the governor said during a session with reporters this week.
The Department of Environmental Services, a cabinet agency under McMaster, told Darlington County businessman Brady Hill, in an email July 17, that his request for information was so broad it would generate more than three million records.
That put the cost to compile and provide the records at $2.4 million, the department said. The agency told Hill it needed a more than $600,000 deposit to begin processing the records request.
But the S.C. Freedom of Information Act request by Hill was specific to the school, according to a copy obtained by The State newspaper. Hill has questioned why the agency said it was overly broad.
After a torrent of criticism, the environmental agency said it would provide the records to Hill for free. Some of that information was being released this week.
The issue centers on forever chemical pollution at Black Creek Elementary School in rural Darlington County. The chemicals, which can cause certain types of cancer, have been found in the soil of school playgrounds by the environmental department, but agency officials say the levels aren’t enough for immediate concern.
Hill and others have sought records to learn more about why the agency came to that conclusion because some forever chemical levels exceeded certain federal pollution standards.
McMaster didn’t call for wholesale changes in the state’s Freedom of Information law as a way to ensure costs are reasonable, but he did say “maybe it could be tightened up.’’ He said Environmental Services may have intended the cost as only an estimate, but the agency needed to think about what it was doing before it sent the response to Hill.
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For an agency to send out a $2.4 million estimate to process an open records request, ‘’somebody “might have a heart attack,’’ the governor said.
The Department of Environmental Services did not respond to a request for comment. The agency has said it never intended to charge that much, even though an email to Hill indicated otherwise.
A key problem with the state’s open records law is that agencies are allowed to charge for staff time, most notably the time it takes to redact what they consider to be non-releasable information, said Jay Bender, a lawyer who is an expert on the state’s Freedom of Information Act.
Bender contends that agencies are abusing that allowance by saying it will cost large amounts of money to process requests for information. In fact, he said, agencies don’t have to redact many pieces of information that they say must be kept secret. But they often don’t want to release documents the public has a right to review, fearing it might make them look bad, Bender said. The high costs of obtaining public information can discourage people from seeking it, he has said.
“Unfortunately, too many public bodies take the position that the information is theirs and not the public’s, and it’s an inconvenience and a burden to allow citizens to see public records,’’ Bender said.
McMaster didn’t go that far, but he said public information should be released without undue obstacles and costs.
While serving as attorney general, McMaster said he always encouraged agencies to err on the side of releasing information. Bender said McMaster has had a strong record on releasing public information without obstacles.
The governor didn’t say if he had spoken with DES director Myra Reece, a cabinet appointee, about the $2.4 million FOIA response, but he said the agency’s response to Hill left plenty of room for improvement.
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“Just a little more common sense would make things work a lot better,’’ he said.