Wait Times at EPA on Pending FOIA Requests Has Climbed

The latest request-by-request data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows that the average number of days unanswered FOIA requests have been waiting has been climbing. As of the end of March, there were 2,410 requests pending at the EPA. On average these had been waiting 321 calendar days without any response.

The number of pending requests at the EPA has remaining fairly steady since June 2015. However, wait times have increased from an average of 253 days back then to 321 days in the latest data. See Figure 1.

Figure 1. Backlog of Unanswered EPA FOIA Requests

This rise has taken place even though an increasing proportion of these pending cases are classified by EPA as simple, rather than complex, requests.
To view these EPA backlog figures by processing track, or see FOIA backlogs and wait times for other federal agencies, go to the FOIA Project’s special
web query tool.