Jonathan Modie, an Oregon Health Authority spokesperson, attributed the removal to a Web Governance Plan. The version he provided was dated February 25, 2026 — the same day the disappearance was discovered.
In June 2026, the author put four direct questions to OHA's press office about the February 2026 removal of the SB 283 report, the SB 283 FAQ, and the Radiation Advisory Committee's pre-2021 meeting minutes. Modie responded on behalf of the agency. His answers are reproduced below alongside what they leave out.
Modie cited OHA's Web Governance Plan, under which reports expire after two years and meeting materials after one. The policy states: "The OHA website may only contain current content. It is not an archive."
The policy does not explain the pattern. Other OHA divisions still host content from 2019 and earlier. Only the Radiation Protection Services pages were cleaned out. A routine retention sweep does not single out one program.
The policy does not explain the search index. OHA's own site search still returns hits for the removed documents, including a February 2020 RAC minutes file that 404s when clicked. The files were pulled; the metadata was left behind. A policy-driven cleanup would have covered both.
The policy does not explain the RAC minutes. Under the plan's own schedule, meeting minutes expire after one year. The pre-2021 RAC minutes had been online for five to seventeen years past that shelf life. If the policy were being enforced routinely, they would have come down years ago.
The policy does not explain the lingering link. The link to the SB 283 report on the Radiation Protection Services landing page — the program's own front door — survived the February removal. It was still in place as of April 10. By June 13 it, too, had been taken down. A single policy action does not stretch across four months.
The policy explicitly authorized an exception. The plan states that "divisions may create their own exception process for hosting archive sections on the website." Radiation Protection Services could have kept the documents online. It didn't.
"OHA Communications and the OHA Web Governance Council provide high-level oversight of the policy."
This does not answer the question. The question was who authorized this specific removal. Modie named the bodies that oversee the policy in general, not the person or office that decided these particular documents should come down. The distinction between maintaining a policy and invoking it is the distinction the answer erases.
"Yes, OHA is making arrangements to make the report and FAQ available on its website again due to renewed public interest."
"Renewed public interest" is the reason OHA gives for restoring the documents. By that logic, the removal should never have happened. The week David Morrison stood at the Capitol handing legislators flyers about the SB 283 report was the week public interest was peaking. The documents disappeared days later. If public interest is what keeps a record online, the timing of the removal contradicts the rationale for it.
"They also were removed due to the website retention policy. We are gathering those documents and will provide copies when they are available (there are too many documents to include in this email)."
OHA must "gather" records its own policy required it to retain. The Web Governance Plan states that "each division is responsible for retaining records elsewhere" when content is removed from the website. If the division followed that requirement, the documents should be at hand. That they need to be gathered suggests they may not have been retained at all — which would be a violation of the agency's own policy, and potentially of state records law.
Modie attached the policy he cited as authorization for the removal: the OHA Web Governance Plan. The version he provided was updated February 25, 2026 — the same day the author discovered that the SB 283 report and FAQ had disappeared from OHA's website.
The Web Governance Plan is not publicly available on OHA's website. By contrast, the Oregon Department of Transportation publishes its Web Governance Plan at a stable URL, with substantially more flexible retention provisions than OHA's.
The author's inquiry and Modie's response are reproduced in full below for reference. Original email formatting (extra line breaks, signature blocks, and similar) has not been preserved.
Dear Jonathan Modie,
I'm an independent journalist investigating Oregon's SB 283 report on the health effects of wireless radiation in schools, released at the end of 2020. In February 2026, two records I had been citing were removed from OHA's Radiation Protection pages on oregon.gov, where they had been available since publication. Those URLs now return errors. The missing documents are the SB 283 report itself and OHA's accompanying FAQ.
Separately, I am no longer able to access the Radiation Advisory Committee (RAC) meeting minutes and agenda items prior to 2021 that were previously available in the RAC meeting archive back to 2008.
I'd like OHA's account of:
I'm working toward a deadline of end of day Tuesday, June 23, and would appreciate a response by then.
Thank you,
Peter Anthony Cowan
When and why were the report and FAQ taken down?
This page was removed as part of OHA's website retention policy (see attached). See Page 31 for requirements under which this report would fall, including:
The OHA website may only contain current content. It is not an archive. Divisions may create their own exception process for hosting archive sections on the website.
Each division is responsible for retaining records elsewhere. "Current content" means:
If your materials do not fall under one of the above categories, the web retention limit is 3 years. Only materials legally required to be online longer than this timeline may remain posted beyond the above retention timelines and may only remain online for as long as is required. Legal requirements may include but are not limited to OAR and contracts.
Who authorized the removal?
OHA Communications and the OHA Web Governance Council provide high-level oversight of the policy.
Does OHA intend to restore them?
Yes, OHA is making arrangements to make the report and FAQ available on its website again due to renewed public interest. In the meantime, the report can be found on the State Library of Oregon website, and I've attached a copy to this email.
What became of the missing RAC minutes and agenda items?
They also were removed due to the website retention policy. We are gathering those documents and will provide copies when they are available (there are too many documents to include in this email). I've copied Jeanne Windham, our public records requests coordinator, who will work on getting you those.