On Sept. 16, 2003, President Bush, in an action taken annually since 1997, issued the following Presidential Determination regarding the continued secrecy of solid and hazardous waste disposal at the U.S. Air Force's super-secret facility known as Area 51, near Groom Lake, Nevada:

Memorandum for the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Presidential Determination No. 2003-39 The Secretary of the Air Force

SUBJECT: Classified Information Concerning the Air Force's

Operating Location Near Groom Lake, Nevada

I find that it is in the paramount interest of the United States to exempt the United States Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada, the subject of litigation in Kasza v. Browner (D. Nev. CV-S-94-795-PMP) and Frost v. Perry (D. Nev. CV-S-94-714-PMP), from any applicable requirement for the disclosure to unauthorized persons of classified information concerning that operating location. Therefore, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 6961(a), I hereby exempt the Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada, from any Federal, State, interstate or local provision respecting control and abatement of solid waste or hazardous waste disposal that would require the disclosure of classified information concerning the operating location to any unauthorized person. This exemption shall be effective for the full one-year statutory period.

Nothing herein is intended to: (a) imply that in the absence of such a Presidential exemption, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) or any other provision of law permits or requires disclosure of classified information to unauthorized persons; or (b) limit the applicability or enforcement of any requirement of law applicable to the Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada, except those provisions, if any, that would require the disclosure of classified information.

The Secretary of the Air Force is authorized and directed to publish this determination in the Federal Register.

GEORGE W. BUSH