If your referring to Section 106 reports, I am not sure because I see no trailing messages, you are correct in that if a report is submitted to a gov agency it does make them public documents in that the public or gov assumes ownership of and managment responsibilities for the documents, especially for work performed on public land.  But that doesn't mean that the public can have access to them.  In general, these documents, especially if they contain informtion about site locations or sensitive cultural values are managed, as required by law, as confidential information and are usually not subject to FOIA.   Under certain cercumstances, its truly a case by case basis, they can be released for a FOIA request, but only if they are stripped of all confidential information also known as redacted.  

NEPA documents with sections referring to Secion 106 evaluations are public documents and can be subject to FOIA.  However, the information in these documents are overviews of the Section 106 evaluations and should never contain confidential information.   


----- Original Message ----
From: Ron May <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 9:11:49 AM
Subject: Re: Publishing (was Industrial Archaeology debate)


The only people who can get to the reports sign a contract and pay $100 an  
hour to read them. They are supervised, but the reports are public information  
because they have been submitted to government agencies. What do you mean by  
trade secrets?

Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.