California’s hazardous-waste regulator kept key documents out of its public rulemaking file, leaving advocates and neighborhood groups to dig them up through formal public-records requests. The withheld records, now in the hands of Earthjustice and folded into permit appeals involving a Santa Fe Springs facility, include federal crash reports and incident logs that describe chemical accidents on the road.
Records Kept Off The Public Page
According to CalMatters, the Department of Toxic Substances Control initially posted a broken link where the rulemaking record was supposed to be and told the public to file California Public Records Act requests instead. That move left critics scrambling to see the evidence behind a proposed change that would ease some tracking rules for hazardous waste moved between properties owned by the same company.
Advocates Pulled The File Themselves
Earthjustice says it secured the documents through a public-records request, then pressed DTSC to upload the full rulemaking file so residents and researchers could actually read it. The group argues that the newly revealed material is exactly the kind of information that should have been available during the public comment period.
What The Files Show
The compilation runs hundreds of pages and includes federal road accident reports and industry correspondence. According to CalMatters, one document in the record recounts an incident in which nitric acid from a tank made contact with other vehicles on I-10. The same set of records includes letters from companies, including large utilities and manufacturers, urging the department to approve the rule change that would relax some manifest requirements.
DTSC's Legal Obligations And Access Rules
The Board of Environmental Safety has reminded the department that final decisions must rest on a complete administrative record and that materials considered by staff should be "readily available" to the public. Board of Environmental Safety filings also describe earlier instances in which DTSC placed incomplete binders in public libraries or required in-person reviews at far-off offices, practices that community groups say make real oversight nearly impossible.
Local Stakes: Phibro-Tech And Nearby Neighborhoods
Access to the full record is a big deal in Los Nietos and other neighborhoods around Phibro-Tech, a Santa Fe Springs hazardous-waste recycler with a long history of violations and community complaints. Earthjustice and local reporting that document worker injuries and enforcement actions lay out the pattern of problems and the ongoing permit fight that fuel residents’ worries about loosening transport rules.
What's Next
Advocates say they will keep pushing DTSC to post the entire rulemaking file online and to fully reckon with the incident reports before changing manifest rules. The Board of Environmental Safety has the power to review procedural and record-keeping failures if appeals move ahead, and that oversight now looms over how, and even whether, the rulemaking ultimately proceeds.
