After dodging a lethal bullet in the First District Court of Appeal this summer, Masonite is again before the Mendocino County Superior Court, and continuing its efforts to prevent the Mendocino Air Quality Management District from publicly revealing information concerning the nature, quantity, and health risks associated with toxic substances released into the air from the Ukiah mill.
The information Masonite hopes to "black out" is contained in two public reports which Masonite is required to prepare by state law: (1)an Air Toxics Emissions Inventory Report (ATEIR), listing the type and quantity of air toxins being released from the mill; and (2)an annual Health Risk Assessment (HRA), which is supposed to inform the public of health effects associated with exposure to the toxins being released. The law requires that these reports be on file at the air district, and remain available there for public review. Masonite contents that the blacked-out data in the reports is a "trade secret."
Recently, however, Masonite's effort to "black out" data has encountered some setbacks. On September 6, 1994, Judge James W. Luther of the Mendocino Superior Court soundly rejected Masonite's attempt to use its suit against the District as a means of going back and covering up information Masonite failed to "black out" when the ATEIRs and HRSa were sent to the District more than two years ago. As part of the ruling, Luther ordered Masonite to file a new version of its ATEIR and HRA, uncovering the newly "blacked out" data, no later than September 27, 1994. The court has yet to issue a final ruling as to whether Masonite can now conceal other data which was released a year ago to environmental groups by the federal E.P.A. and the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.
Judge Luther has also taken Masonite to task on the level of proof necessary to conceal as "trade secret" any other blacked out data contained in the ATEIR and HRA.
Previously, Masonite had made sweeping "trade secret" claims for broad categories of data which "might" harm its competitive position if known. Under the September 6, 1994 ruling, however, Masonite must now specify, as to each data point blacked out, why the information is a "trade secret," and specifically how Masonite will be harmed if the data is uncovered. Masonite must make this showing in papers to be filed with the court on or before October 18, 1994.
Citizens for a Healthy Ukiah, a Ukiah-based group representing the public in this legal battle, will have an opportunity to rebut Masonite's "trade secret" claims, and to show how nondisclosure of the concealed air toxics data is, itself, harmful to the public, in papers to be filed with the court on or before November 15, 1994.
A hearing on the matter is scheduled for January 5, 1995 at 9:30 a.m., in Department 2 of the Superior Court.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2004
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