Posted July 14, 2014
On Friday, the Iowa Supreme Court
ruled the 2009 Iowa Environmental Protection Commission water quality
regulations valid, according to an SF Gate article by the Associated
Press available here.
The Des Moines Register also published an article available here.
The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) also published a press release here.
The lawsuit was filed by (IFBF) and other farm and business
organizations against the commission in an attempt to disqualify two of the
commissioners' votes and get the regulations thrown out. Commission members
Carrie La Seur and Susan Heathcote were appointed by former Democratic Gov.
Chet Culver.
In 2012, Polk County District Court Judge Mary Pat Gunderson
ruled that the commissioners’ votes were valid and the rules were “properly
enacted,” according to the Des
Moines Register.
The court
also ruled that the water rules should remain in place.
"The disqualification of a commission member does not
invalidate the action taken by the commission when the particular
disqualification did not undermine the integrity of the process, and when the
public interest supports validating the rule despite the
disqualification," wrote Chief Justice Mark Cady in an opinion for the
majority of justices.
Justices Thomas Waterman, Edward Mansfield, and Bruce Zager
disagreed with the four-justice majority on the La Seur portion.
"I would hold that because La Seur was disqualified
from voting and the commission was improperly constituted with her
participating, the anti-degradation rules are void," Waterman wrote in the
dissenting opinion.
The IFBF
“still believes in clean government and that good
public policy requires that Iowa residents, not Montana residents, should
decide Iowa law,” according a press
release.
“This is
about an appointed board, who is charged with the duty of representing and
considering the environmental and business interests of all Iowans. A
board that serves the public needs Iowans who bring various expertise and
viewpoints to the table, and the court said that being paid by a lobbying
organization is just another permissible bias,” said IFBF Government Relations
Counsel, Christina Gruenhagen.
“Under this ruling, it is difficult to
imagine a circumstance where the court will disqualify anyone from serving as
an officer in the executive branch. The court also determined today that
actual residency isn’t a requirement of office, even when mandated in the
controlling statute.”
The water quality rules will require anyone with new or
expanded wastewater discharges into waterways to be reviewed and seek permits and
certification from the state,
according to the Des
Moines Register
For more information on water law, please visit the National
Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
