How the Air Force Manages George AFB Remediation Records: A Guide to the Four Information Repositories

1. AFCEC CERCLA Public Administrative Record (AR)

The AR is the official, legally controlling record of the George AFB Installation Restoration Program (IRP). Under 40 CFR §300.800, the lead agency is required to establish an administrative record containing all documents that form the basis for selecting a response action. The AR is compiled, maintained, and continuously updated by the Air Force Civil Engineer Center (AFCEC) in accordance with Subpart I of the National Contingency Plan (NCP), 40 CFR §§300.800–300.825.

The AR serves two critical legal functions. First, it is the instrument of public participation: CERCLA and the NCP require that the public have a meaningful opportunity to review and comment on proposed response actions, and the AR is the vehicle through which that opportunity is provided. Second, it defines the scope of judicial review: under CERCLA §113(j), any legal challenge to a remedy selection is limited to the administrative record. A court may overturn a remedy decision only if a challenger can demonstrate, on the face of the AR, that the decision was arbitrary and capricious or otherwise contrary to law.

Documents in the AR must be non-deliberative and non-privileged. Under 40 CFR §300.810(c)–(d), privileged documents — including those subject to attorney-client, attorney work product, or deliberative process privilege — are excluded from the publicly available portion of the AR. Where a privileged document contains information that forms the basis for a response action and that information is not available elsewhere, the agency must, to the extent feasible, summarize the information in a disclosable form and place that summary in the public record.

The George AFB AR is publicly accessible at: https://ar.cce.af.mil/

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2. George AFB Project Portal

The Project Portal is an internal, contractor-managed document management and coordination platform used by the parties to the George AFB Federal Facility Agreement (FFA). The FFA — signed September 21, 1990, among the Air Force, EPA Region 9, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) — requires the parties to exchange draft and final technical documents, comments, responses to comments, and coordination correspondence throughout the remedial investigation and cleanup process. The Project Portal is the platform through which that exchange occurs.

The Portal contains working documents, draft reports, regulator comments, contractor submittals, and coordination files that predate or supplement the finalized documents placed in the public AR. This is consistent with standard FFA practice and is expressly contemplated by the NCP framework, which distinguishes between documents that “form the basis” for a response action decision (AR-eligible) and pre-decisional working materials that support the process (not required to be in the AR).

The Portal is not accessible to the public. It has been maintained under successive Air Force environmental remediation contracts: originally by Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure, then by CB&I (Chicago Bridge & Iron) following its acquisition of Shaw’s environmental services division, and subsequently by Aptim Corp following its acquisition of CB&I’s environmental division. References to the Portal appear in multiple documents within the AFCEC CERCLA Administrative Record.

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3. Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP)

DERP is a DoD-wide program management, tracking, and funding framework — not a document repository. Established by Congress in 1986 and codified at 10 U.S.C. §2701 et seq., DERP funds and tracks environmental cleanup at active installations, Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) locations, and Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS). The program is managed by the Office of the Secretary of Defense through the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment, in accordance with DoD Manual 4715.20 and DoD Instruction 4715.07.

Under DERP, responsibility for execution rests with the individual service components. The Air Force, through AFCEC and its contractors, performs the remediation work and reports detailed technical findings into AFCEC systems. DERP itself receives only high-level summary data — cleanup status, site classifications, and funding figures — as reflected in the Installation Restoration Program (IRP) and Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP) Status Tables published in the annual Defense Environmental Programs Report to Congress.

The DERP database is an internal DoD system. Its contents were not publicly available until journalist Abrahm Lustgarten obtained a full database export via FOIA request 17-F-0038 and published the data through ProPublica’s “Bombs in Your Backyard” series (2017). The data confirmed that contamination risk at numerous sites, including George AFB, had not been formally evaluated despite documented detections of hazardous substances in soil and groundwater.

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4. Classified and Sensitive Records

Certain records about the George AFB IRP are maintained separately from the public AR by operation of law. CERCLA §120(j) expressly provides that all requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. §2011 et seq.) and all Executive Orders concerning the handling of restricted data and national security information — including need-to-know requirements — apply to any grant of access to classified information under CERCLA. This provision preserves the classification framework established under the Atomic Energy Act even where CERCLA’s disclosure obligations would otherwise apply.

At George AFB, this carve-out is directly relevant to records concerning decontamination activities for atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, legacy nuclear weapons maintenance wastes, and other operations involving radiological materials classified under Section 91(b) of the Atomic Energy Act. The George AFB FFA itself contains a provision authorizing the withholding of records about such materials.

Under 40 CFR §300.810(c)–(d), classified or otherwise privileged documents that contain information relied upon in remedy selection are not placed in the public AR; instead, a disclosable summary is prepared where feasible. Under FOIA, classified records are withheld pursuant to Exemption 1 (5 U.S.C. §552(b)(1)), and Restricted Data and Formerly Restricted Data under the Atomic Energy Act are withheld pursuant to Exemption 3 (5 U.S.C. §552(b)(3)). In response to FOIA requests, the agency may release a redacted index or bibliography identifying the existence of withheld records without disclosing their contents — a practice known as a Vaughn index.

George AFB Project Portal contractors (not current)

Shaw Environmental was acquired by CB&I (Chicago Bridge & Iron) around 2012, and CB&I’s environmental division was subsequently spun off and became Aptim in 2017. This is a well-documented acquisition chain in the defense environmental contracting sector.

Period	Contractor	Notes
Earlier	Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure	Original portal manager
Mid	CBI (Chicago Bridge & Iron)	Acquired Shaw’s environmental services division
Current/Later	Aptim	Acquired CBI’s environmental services division

FOIA to-do list

For Project Portal Contents (AFCEC/Air Force)

“All documents, data, reports, work plans, and correspondence stored in or submitted through the George Air Force Base (EPA Superfund ID: CA2570024453) Project Portal, maintained by Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure, CBI (Chicago Bridge & Iron), and/or Aptim, from [start year] to present, including but not limited to remedial investigation data, annual remedial action progress reports, quality assurance project plans, and regulatory submissions.”

For the Portal’s Existence and Administration (AFCEC/Air Force)

“All contracts, task orders, statements of work, and modifications related to the operation, maintenance, or management of the George AFB Project Portal, including contracts held by Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure, CB&I Environmental & Infrastructure, and Aptim Corp.”

For DERP Internal Data (OSD)

“All Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP) database records for George Air Force Base, EPA Superfund ID CA2570024453, including all data fields, site status, contaminant data, risk assessments, and funding records from [start year] to present.” (Lustgarten’s 17-F-0038 is your template.)

For FFA Working Documents (EPA Region 9 or Air Force)

“All documents exchanged among parties to the Federal Facility Agreement for George Air Force Base (signed September 21, 1990, and as amended), including drafts, comments, responses to comments, and correspondence between the Air Force, EPA Region 9, DTSC, and RWQCB, from [date range].”

Practical Tips

Invoking 40 CFR §300.815 — The NCP’s administrative record regulations require the lead agency to make the AR available to the public. If specific documents are withheld from the public AR but were relied upon in remedy selection, you can argue they must either be placed in the public record or summarized per 40 CFR §300.810(d).

CERCLA §120(j) classified carve-out — If records are withheld citing the Atomic Energy Act or national security (as is the case for some George AFB radiological records), request a Vaughn index — a document-by-document log of what is withheld and the specific exemption claimed. The Air Force is obligated to provide this even when it won’t release the documents itself.

Exemption 5 (deliberative process) — Draft documents in the Project Portal may be withheld under FOIA Exemption 5. However, documents relied upon in remedy selection decisions must be included in the AR regardless of their draft status. Challenge any Exemption 5 withholding of documents that appear in the AR index.

Fee waivers — Request a fee waiver under 5 U.S.C. §552(a)(4)(A)(iii) on the grounds that disclosure is in the public interest and the information concerns the health and environmental impacts of a Superfund site on a residential community.

Argument against the AF response to a FOIA request: “No Records Found in the AR.”

The Air Force’s Own Legal Guidance Cuts Against Them

This is the sharpest point: the Air Force Judge Advocate General’s own FOIA guidance acknowledges the multi-repository obligation while attempting to carve out a narrow exception. Although an agency “can’t limit its search to only one record system if there are others that are likely to turn up the information requested,” an agency is not required to search all relevant record systems if the responsive record can be retrieved from a particular record system in a less burdensome way. AFJAG

That “less burdensome” carve-out is inapplicable here — because searching only the public AR has produced nothing. Once the primary repository returns no responsive records, the burden-reduction rationale evaporates entirely.

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Why “No Records Found in the AR” Is Not a Legally Adequate Response

Responding that no records were found in the public AR is particularly deficient for three specific reasons in your case:

1. The AR is not the universe of agency records. The AR is a curated public-disclosure subset — not a complete record of everything the Air Force holds on GAFB contamination. DERP, the Project Portal, contractor work files, and FFA correspondence all exist separately and are not automatically searched.

2. The agency knows the other repositories exist. Courts have held that “only searching the databases ‘most likely’ to contain responsive documents does not satisfy FOIA, as it may preclude record systems that are less likely than others to contain responsive documents, yet may still likely contain them.” U.S. Department of Justice. You can now name the specific repositories — DERP, the Shaw/CBI/Aptim Project Portal, FFA files — which raises the standard higher.

3. Affidavits must be specific, not conclusory. Agency affidavits that “do not denote which files were searched or by whom, do not reflect any systematic approach to document location, and do not provide information specific enough to allow the plaintiff to challenge the procedures utilized” are insufficient to fulfill the agency’s burden. Tax Notes A response that simply says “no responsive records found in the AR” almost certainly fails this standard.

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What to Demand in Your Next Request or Appeal

Specifically name each repository and require a written statement confirming each was searched. Language to include:

“This request requires a search of ALL systems of records likely to contain responsive documents, including but not limited to: (1) the AFCEC CERCLA Public Administrative Record; (2) the Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP) database; (3) the George AFB Project Portal, maintained by Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure, CB&I, and/or Aptim under Air Force contracts; (4) all Federal Facility Agreement working files and correspondence with EPA Region 9, DTSC, and RWQCB; and (5) any contractor-held records maintained on behalf of AFCEC. A response limited to the public AR will not constitute an adequate search under the ‘reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents’ standard (Weisberg v. DOJ, 745 F.2d 1476 (D.C. Cir. 1984)) and will be appealed on that basis.”

Also demand, in any appeal:

“A Vaughn index identifying: (a) each repository searched; (b) the search terms used; (c) the name and title of the person who conducted each search; and (d) for any records withheld, the specific FOIA exemption claimed on a document-by-document basis.”

ERPIMS

• Air Force contractors perform sampling and analysis.
• They validate and load the raw data into ERPIMS using AFCEC-approved tools (ERPToolsX, specific data dictionaries, and loading handbooks).
  AFCEC uses ERPIMS data to:
  • Support cleanup decision-making
  • Generate reports
    Export summaries or selected datasets into the public CERCLA Administrative Record (the searchable AR on ar.afcec-cloud.af.mil)
• High-level summaries from ERPIMS also roll up into DERP (the DoD-wide program tracking system) for Congressional reporting and budgeting.

DERP and Superfund (CERCLA)

DERP and RCRA