WASHINGTON— Advocacy groups today urged the Trump administration to end the illegal practice of withholding public documents supporting U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ permits approving destruction of wetlands.

The Freedom of Information Act requires that documents supporting final permitting decisions under the Clean Water Act must be released promptly to the public. This “reading room” provision imposes requirements beyond the separate obligation to respond to FOIA requests for specific documents. It’s designed to ensure that agencies cannot operate under “secret law” but have to keep the public fully informed about significant decisions.

“Americans are fed up with this administration’s attempts to keep us all in the dark while it lets industry call all the shots on destroying the nation’s wetlands,” said Ivan Ditmars, associate attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Is the Army Corps following the law or rubber-stamping projects that will result in rampant, illegal destruction of wetlands critical to wildlife? We can’t know for sure until the Corps stops violating public disclosure laws and starts showing its work.”

The Clean Water Act requires the Army Corps to regulate the dredging or filling of waters of the United States. When a federal agency receives a request to dredge or fill wetlands or other waterways, the public currently receives very limited information about the project. Once the Army Corps grants a permit, it fails to share the final records revealing how it reached its decision or how the project might harm the environment.

These secretive practices violate requirements of the Freedom of Information Act that agencies disclose “final opinions” on permit applications in a publicly accessible online “reading room.” Today’s formal request urges the Army Corps to cease concealing documents that explain final decisions to dig up and fill wetlands and waterways.

“Americans have a fundamental right, through the Freedom of Information Act, to know what our government is doing -- or failing to do -- to protect our wetlands under the federal Clean Water Act,” said David Bookbinder, Director of Law and Policy at the Environmental Integrity Project. “The Trump Administration has been withholding key documents relating to its review of wetlands destruction permits for the energy industry and developers, and this illegal secrecy must end.”

The need for these records has grown more urgent in the last year.

On Jan. 20, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order “Declaring a National Energy Emergency” that directed the Army Corps to use powers intended for acute emergencies, such as natural disasters, for all projects that relate to “energy and critical minerals.” The Trump administration has used this claim to disregard environmental safeguards protecting water quality and wildlife.

Earlier this year the Center threatened to sue the Army Corps over illegal orders that an energy emergency superseded the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act. Thereafter the Corps removed some of the most high profile and controversial projects from the “emergency” track.

For the many projects that the Corps has moved forward on the “emergency” track, it has routinely granted “emergency” dredge and fill permits after skirting its usual environmental reviews. Public comment opportunities for “emergency” projects have often shrunk to just 15 days without any supporting records ever being made publicly available.

In one recent example from Texas, the Corps granted an emergency permit allowing the destruction of wetlands in order to expand pumping capacity at a pipeline. The Corps greenlit the project a mere 29 days after receiving the permit application, despite acknowledging that it could harm nine threatened or endangered species.

In November the Army Corps and the Environmental Protection Agency also published a proposed rule that would severely restrict protections for wetlands under the Clean Water Act. This rule would cause the largest loss of wetlands protections in the United States since the passage of the Clean Water Act. Wetlands play a crucial role in protecting water quality, biodiversity, and fighting climate change.

This letter urging the administration’s compliance with the “reading room” requirement was submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmental Integrity Project, and the Conservation Law Foundation. The Army Corps has 20 business days to respond to this request.