[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 248 (Tuesday, December 24, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67798-67799]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-32650]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Notice of Issuance of Decisions and Orders During the Week of 
November 4 Through November 8, 1996

    During the week of November 4 through November 8, 1996, the 
decisions and orders summarized below were issued with respect to 
appeals, applications, petitions, or other requests filed with the 
Office of Hearings and Appeals of the Department of Energy. The 
following summary also contains a list of submissions that were 
dismissed by the Office of Hearings and Appeals.
    Copies of the full text of these decisions and orders are available 
in the Public Reference Room of the Office of Hearings and Appeals, 
Room 1E-234, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW, 
Washington, D.C. 20585-0107, Monday through Friday, between the hours 
of 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., except federal holidays. They are also 
available in Energy Management: Federal Energy Guidelines, a 
commercially published loose leaf reporter system. Some decisions and 
orders are available on the Office of Hearings and Appeals World Wide 
Web site at http://www.oha.doe.gov.

    Dated: December 12, 1996
George B. Breznay,
Director, Office of Hearings and Appeals.

Appeals

F.A.C.T.S., 11/7/96, VFA-0227

    F.A.C.T.S. (For A Clean Tonawanda Site), a public interest group, 
filed an Appeal from a determination issued by the Oak Ridge Operations 
Office (Oak Ridge) of the Department of Energy (DOE) in response to a 
Request for Information submitted under the Freedom of Information Act. 
The DOE consulted with Oak Ridge on this matter and that Office agreed 
to undertake a new search in conjunction with other ongoing FOIA 
searches being done for F.A.C.T.S. The DOE also determined that 
F.A.C.T.S. could not expand the scope of its request on appeal by 
requesting additional documents. Accordingly, the Appeal was denied in 
part, granted in part, and remanded to Oak Ridge for a further search.

Thomas P. Koenings, 11/6/96, VFA-0215

    Thomas P. Koenigs filed an Appeal from a determination issued to 
him by the Savannah River Operations Office (Savannah River) of the 
Department of Energy (DOE) in response to a Request for Information 
submitted under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Mr. Koenigs had 
sought information on DOE Account 89X6090 which holds unclaimed funds 
due creditors of certain DOE contractors. He also sought information 
concerning certain other Savannah River accounts. His request, made in 
1994, sought this information from January 1986 to present. In response 
to the request Savannah River released lists showing the names of 
persons or companies owed money, check numbers, and the amounts of the 
payment due. Many of the lists also had, inter alia, a social security 
number, an employee number, or a payee/paycheck number. Savannah River 
released all of the information except the names of individuals and 
corresponding social security, employee or payee/paycheck number. This 
information was withheld under Exemption 6 of the FOIA which permits 
the agency to withhold information release of which would cause a 
clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Savannah River also 
informed Mr. Koenigs that any addresses for the persons on the released 
lists would only be found in contractor personnel records which are not 
subject to the FOIA. Finally, Savannah River only released information 
from January 1986 to approximately the date of the request in 1994.
    In considering the Appeal, the DOE determined that there is a 
considerable privacy interest in linking the names of individuals with 
financial information about that individual such as money owed to that 
person. The DOE also found a considerable privacy interest for the 
social security numbers. However, the DOE found the employee numbers 
involved a lower privacy interest than the social security numbers. The 
payee/payroll number has a privacy interest below these two. The other 
parts of the Exemption 6 analysis, identifying the public interest and 
balancing the public and private interests could not be performed in 
consideration of the appeal because of insufficient information on the 
nature and use of the accounts involved. In addition, the DOE found 
that further analysis is required to support Savannah River's assertion 
that addresses would only be found in contractor personnel records. 
Finally, the DOE held that when the requester seeks current information 
and the agency's response is substantially delayed, a responding office 
should continue its search beyond the date of the request to a date 
reasonably close to the time the search starts and/or a determination 
is issued. Accordingly, the appeal was granted in part, denied in part, 
and remanded to the Savannah River Operations Office for further 
consideration.

Refund Applications

    The Office of Hearings and Appeals issued the following Decisions 
and Orders concerning refund applications, which are not summarized. 
Copies of the full texts of the Decisions and Orders are available in 
the Public Reference Room of the Office of Hearings and Appeals.

Community Oil Co. of Day Cnty et al......................  RF272-95237                                   11/6/96
Crude Oil Supple Ref Dist................................  RB272-00093                                   11/6/96
Peetz Farmers Co-op Co. et al............................  RG272-00944                                   11/7/96
Pepin Distributing Co. et al.............................  RG272-00820                                   11/7/96
Talladega County.........................................  RF272-69071                                   11/6/96
Township of Granklin et al...............................  RG272-611                                     11/4/96
                                                                                                                

[[Page 67799]]

                                                                                                                
Transco Exploration Co. et al............................  RK272-03456                                   11/4/96
United Water New Jersey, F/K/A Hackens; Guy Heavener       RF272-97814; RF272-97850; RF272-97830         11/6/96
 Inc.; W.T. Myles Transportation Co..                                                                           
                                                                                                          

Dismissals

    The following submissions were dismissed.

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                     Name                               Case No.        
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Camp Bauman Buses, Inc.......................  RF272-95256              
Custer Farmer's Cooperative Exchange.........  RF272-95280              
Marine Drilling Companies, Inc...............  RF272-95276              
Mid-State Paving/T L James & Co..............  RF272-95265              
Nuway Cooperative............................  RG272-492                
Olsen Drilling Company.......................  RF272-95296              
S&M Realty Company...........................  RF272-78560              
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[FR Doc. 96-32650 Filed 12-23-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P