A federal judge yesterday ordered the Environmental Protection Agency not to remove or tamper with documents sought in a lawsuit aimed at determining if the EPA had ties to special-interest groups on pending environmental regulations.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, in granting a preliminary injunction sought by the Landmark Legal Foundation, a Herndon-based public-interest law firm, prohibited the EPA from "transporting, removing or in any way tampering" with documents the firm believes are responsive to a pending Freedom of Information Act request.

Landmark had asked the EPA to produce the names of special-interest groups that may have been involved in the preparation of regulations issued by the agency in the final days of the Clinton administration.

"For 4½ months, the EPA has attempted to run out the clock and prevent us from learning whether their regulatory process has been hijacked by extreme environmentalists," said Landmark President Mark R. Levin. "The EPA's spate of new regulations represents a virtual wish list from these special interests.

"A federal court should not have to order the EPA to do that which it is already obligated to do under the law," he said.

Mr. Levin said the order will allow the firm to discover if documents were removed before and after a Freedom of Information Act request and to hold agency officials liable if any of the records turn up missing or altered.

In October, Landmark said in a lawsuit that EPA violated the Freedom of Information Act in refusing to turn over documents showing its ties to special-interest groups. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, came after published reports that the EPA was "working feverishly" to issue a host of last-minute regulations before the end of the Clinton administration.

According to the suit, the records include:

- The identification of all new rules or regulations for which the public has not yet been given notice.

- The names of individuals, groups or organizations outside the EPA with whom the agency has met or talked regarding the pending rules and regulations.

- All documents concerning pending revised or new environmental rules — including notes, letters, memorandums, minutes, logs, calendars, schedules, reports, studies, analyses and plans.

- All economic-impact assessments and environmental-impact statements that have been conducted in accordance with any pending new regulations.

Landmark’s concerns centered on efforts by the EPA to issue a host of new rules and regulations proposed by environmentalists and other liberal-leaning groups, but opposed by many business and industry organizations.

Newly proposed EPA guidelines would establish more stringent standards on a number of fronts —including a ban on new road construction by the U.S. Forest Service; a curb on diesel-exhaust emissions; a regulation on mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants; a limit on the use of pesticides, including diazinon and atrazine; and a compensation package for nuclear workers exposed to radiation and chemical hazards.

Landmark asked the court to block the EPA from issuing any new regulations until the agency releases the documents.

President Clinton already has signed more than 450 executive orders and proclamations, which don’t require congressional approval. They include the implementation of the Antiquities Act to create the Grand Canyon-Parashant, Giant Sequoia, Agua Fria and California Coastal national monuments.