Groom Lake Remains Exempt from Waste Laws
Dateline: 02/02/2000
President Clinton yesterday (2/2/2000) issued his annual "Letter to Congress" confirming and clarifying the continued exemption of the Air Force facility at Groom Lake, Nevada (a.k.a. Area 51) from "any Federal, State, interstate, or local hazardous or solid waste laws that might require the disclosure of classified information concerning that operating location to unauthorized persons." Basically, the Air Force is not required to file environmental impact or incident reports about its Groom Lake procedures.
According to the President's letter (shown in full below), the exemption was extended to Groom Lake under Presidential Determination 99-37 because, "Information concerning activities at the operating location near Groom Lake has been properly determined to be classified, and its disclosure would be harmful to national security. Continued protection of this information is, therefore, in the paramount interest of the United States." (Text of Presidential Determination 99-37 is not available on the White House Publications web site.)
The following is the complete text of President Clinton's letter to the Congress:
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release February 1, 2000
TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:
Consistent with section 6001(a) of the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) (the "Act"), as amended, 42 U.S.C.
6961(a), notification is hereby given that on September 20, 1999, I issued
Presidential Determination 99-37 (copy enclosed) and thereby exercised the
authority to grant certain exemptions under section 6001(a) of the Act.
Presidential Determination 99-37 exempted the United States Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada, from any Federal, State, interstate, or local hazardous or solid waste laws that might require the disclosure of classified information concerning that operating location to unauthorized persons. Information concerning activities at the operating location near Groom Lake has been properly determined to be classified, and its disclosure would be harmful to national security. Continued protection of this information is, therefore, in the paramount interest of the United States.
The determination was not intended to imply
that in the absence of a Presidential exemption, RCRA or any other provision of
law permits or requires the disclosure of classified information to unauthorized
persons. The determination also was not intended to limit the
applicability or enforcement of any requirement of law applicable to the Air
Force's operating location near Groom Lake except those provisions, if any, that
would require the disclosure of classified information.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
THE WHITE HOUSE,
January 31, 2000.
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