ML19329E596

Protests 730730 Subpoena & 730827 Response Date on Grounds of Confidentiality & Burden.Requests Open Extension of Response Date.Jd Pace Affidavit & Statement Re 730822 Telcon Encl

ML19329E596
Person / Time
Site:	Midland
Issue date:	08/17/1973
From:	Daverman R DAVERMAN ASSOCIATES, INC.
To:	Garfinkel J Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel
Shared Package
ML19329E597	List: ML19329E596 ML19329E598
References
DA-7308-6, NUDOCS 8006160381
Download: ML19329E596 (4)

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..s .- N C. U n ~ , : :0:c- OE A ', . int.rnO n-WM WCHu;AN tM02 * (616; .15135.:5 August 17, 1973 DA 7308-6 Hon. Jerome Garfinkel, Esq., Chairman ,

Atomic Safety & Licencing Board U. S. Atomic Energy Commission Washington, D.C. 20545 In the Matter of )

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Consumers Power Company ) Docket Numbers 50-329A (Midland Plant, Units 1 and 2) ) 50-330A

Dear Mr. Garfinkel:

Your subpoena duces tecum to us on the subject matter under date of July 30, 1973 was served upon us with a response date of August 27, 1973.

The material and documents which you request are, in all instances, work products developed in connection with providing services for clients of our company in our professional capacity as engineers and consultants to them.

We have issued a letter to our clients, along with a copy of the subpoena, advising them of our responsibility to respond and to make available the information requested in the subpoena. We would feel bound by the reason-able and legal requests of our clients with respect to any matters in our files relating to our services for them and shall respond further to you after we have received their replies. A copy of our letter and a list of the clients receiving the letter are enclosed.

Assuming that we receive authorization from our clients to respond to the subpoena (and we know that subpoenas were served t'o each of them many months ago for the same substantive matters, so that the service of the subpoena upon us is essentially duplicative), the amount of paper and number of documents to be produced under our subpoena, because of its all encom-passing and non-specific language, runs into tens of thousands of pieces over a period of thirteen years and involves the active, transferred and dead files of our organization. The engineering and clerical time required i

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DAVERMAN ASSOCIATES HON. JEROME GARFINKEL, ESO. August 17, 1973 to respond to the subpoena as presently written is beyond the capacity of our organization to supply upon such short notice, and, regardless of time, will be very burdensome to us in view of on-going engineering service com-mitments to all of our clients. Furthermore, the cost of responding to the subpoena is something which our firm should not be required to bear without compensation.

Consumers Power Company has known for many years that we have served many of Michigan's municipal and cooperative electric utilities as engineering consultants in the preparation of various engineering studies and reports.

It would seem logical then that we should have been subpoenaed in the broad terms in which we were many months ago, coincidental with the service of subpoenas to many of these municipal and cooperative electric utilities.

Since that was not tne case, it follows that our subpoena results from spe-cific discovery under other subpoenas. It seems only reasonable, therefore, that the subpoena directed to us should be required to request specific work papers and supporting data on an item by item basis for those studies for which additional information is desired.

Furthermore, we are presently engaged in rendering services to certain of our clients on the following matters for which confidentiality is essential and must be considered privileged,

a. Engineering and consultation services for the inter-venors in the subject matter.

b. Engineering and consultation services in connection with power supply contract negotiat'.ons betweeen Consumers Power Company and the Michigan Municipal and Cooperative Power pool members (Northern Michigan Electric Cooperative; Wolverine Electric Cooperative; City of Traverse City, Michigan; Board of Water and Light of the City of Grand Haven, Michigan) .

c. Engineering and consultation services in~ connection with a Federal Power Commission rate case interven-tion involving Consumers Power Company and several of our clients.

It would be our feeling that the subpoena should also be limited to exclude any material prepared by us in connection with these three matters. If volun-tary agreement cannot be reached on the elimination of this material, we would expect to present a motion to limit the reach of the subpoena so as to exclude the above matters.

We are completely willing to cooperate fully in this matter and would welecme an opportunity to meet with your representatives and representatives of Consumers Power Company to develop a specific item by item approach to t

DAVERMAN ASSOCIATES HON. JEROME GARFINKEL, ESO. August 17, 1973 to responding to the subpoena so as to minimize the effort for all parties concerned, to avoid the necessity of duplicating the efforts of others, and, especially, to avoid submitting volumes of material which would be totally unessential in this matter but which within the present all encom-Passing language of the subpoena we are ordered to provide.

Accordingly, we request that the response date of our subpoena be extended on an open basis until the scope of its reach is more specifically defined as requested in this letter, at which time a practical determination of the time required to respond can be established.

I might add that if we are required to respond to our subpoena in its pre-sent form, we see no way to meet its demands in less than four to six l months, since a thorough and detailed search of all files and records will have to be made by members of our engineering staff conversant with the work whi.le continuing to meet day to day workload requirements.

Your sincere consideration of our request will be greatly appreciated.

Very truly yours, DAVERMAN ASSOCIATES, INC.

R. J. Daverman RJD:MJD Enclosure

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