Bennett v. Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources, 96-1300
| Decision Date | 24 December 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 96-1300,96-1300 |
| Citation | 573 N.W.2d 25 |
| Parties | Larry L. BENNETT, Appellant, v. IOWA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES, Appellee. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Larry L. Bennett, Runnells, appellant pro se.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and David R. Sheridan and David L. Dorff, Assistant Attorneys General, for appellee.
Considered by McGIVERIN, C.J., and LARSON, CARTER, LAVORATO, and ANDREASEN, JJ.
At issue in this appeal is whether a combustion process for handling solid waste at a municipal facility would constitute recycling under Iowa's environmental laws and whether the amount of waste considered to be recycled in such a combustion process would include the volume of waste initially placed into the process. We conclude that the district court correctly upheld an agency determination: (1) that the combustion process would not qualify as recycling; and (2) that the amount of waste recycled would include only such waste as was returned to use after the recycling process. We therefore affirm the district court's ruling.
I. Background proceedings. Petitioner Larry L. Bennett is a business consultant whose client proposes to build and operate a facility utilizing combustion to process municipal solid waste. The resulting ash and metals would be separated after combustion. Bennett petitioned the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for a declaratory ruling regarding the recycling status of the proposed facility. See Iowa Code § 17A.9 (1995).
Iowa Code section 17A.9 authorizes administrative agencies to issue declaratory rulings based on purely hypothetical sets of facts and provides that such rulings will be the subject of judicial review. City of Des Moines v. Public Employment Relations Bd., 275 N.W.2d 753, 758 (Iowa 1979). The procedure established by section 17A.9 allows persons to seek formal opinions on the effect of future transactions and arrange their affairs accordingly. Women Aware v. Reagen, 331 N.W.2d 88, 92 (Iowa 1983) (citing Arthur Earl Bonfield, The Iowa Administrative Procedure Act: Background, Construction, Applicability, Public Access to Agency Law, The Rulemaking Process, 60 Iowa L.Rev. 731, 807 (1975)).
Bennett's petition posed these questions: (1) whether processing municipal solid waste by means of his proposed combustion process constitutes recycling under the environmental statutes; and (2) whether the entire volume of municipal solid waste to be so processed, rather than only the volume remaining after combustion, can be counted in determining how much waste has been recycled.
The DNR's declaratory ruling concluded that the combustion of municipal solid waste does not constitute recycling under Iowa's environmental laws and that only the volume of material remaining after processing could be considered recycled material. Bennett appealed the DNR's declaratory ruling to the Environmental Protection Commission, which upheld the ruling.
Upon Bennett's petition for judicial review to the district court, see Iowa Code section 17A.19, the court affirmed the Environmental Protection Commission's ruling.
Petitioner Bennett appealed the district court's ruling. See Iowa Code § 17A.20.
II. Standard of review. Our review of the district court's judicial review ruling is for correction of errors at law. Id.; Iowa R.App. P. 4.; Squealer Feeds v. Pickering, 530 N.W.2d 678, 681 (Iowa 1995). Although we give weight to an agency's interpretation of a statute, we are not bound by that construction. City of Des Moines, 275 N.W.2d at 759.
III. Questions raised by petitioner. On appeal to us by petitioner Bennett, our review is confined to two issues: (1) whether processing municipal solid waste by means of combustion constitutes recycling under the environmental statutes; and (2) under the applicable statutes, whether the entire volume of municipal solid waste to be processed, rather than only the volume remaining after combustion, can be counted in calculating how much waste has been recycled.
A. Combustion as recycling.
1. Iowa Code chapter 455D, Waste Volume Reduction and Recycling, was enacted in 1989. 1989 Iowa Acts ch. 272. Iowa Code section 455D.3(1) sets forth the legislature's overall environmental goal for the state of "reduc[ing] the amount of materials in the waste stream" by the year 2000. By achieving several intermediate goals by certain deadlines, municipal planning areas can reduce the tonnage fees the operators of their sanitary landfills must pay to the DNR for the disposal of solid waste. Iowa Code §§ 455B.310(1), (2); 455D.3(3). On the other hand, municipal planning areas failing to meet the goals incur higher tonnage fees and must implement other solid waste management measures. Id. § 455D.3(3), (4). The statute requires that the goals be accomplished through the use of two methods: (1) waste volume reduction at the source; and (2) recycling. Id. § 455D.3(1). Thus, if the combustion process proposed by petitioner Bennett's client qualifies as recycling under section 455D.3, that process can be used by municipal planning areas to help meet the goals established by the legislature and thereby reduce tonnage fees a planning area must pay concerning waste disposal. 1
2. Iowa Code section 455D.1(6) defines "recycling" as:
any process by which waste, or materials which would otherwise become waste, are collected, separated, or processed and revised or returned to use in the form of raw materials or products. "Recycling" includes but is not limited to the composting of yard waste which has been previously separated from other waste, but does not include any form of energy recovery.
The reference in that statute to "the composting of yard waste which has been previously separated from other waste" (emphasis added) suggests that the legislature envisioned a process whereby some waste materials are separated from other waste before the recycling process, so that the materials placed into the process are somewhat homogeneous. In contrast, the combustion process proposed by petitioner Bennett would involve the processing of dissimilar materials; separation of ash from metals would occur after the combustion process was completed.
3. Other statutory provisions indicate that the legislature did not intend that combustion qualify as recycling. In setting forth legislative policy regarding the disposal of solid waste, Iowa Code section 455B.301A(1) distinguishes combustion from recycling:
While recognizing the continuing necessity for the existence of landfills, alternative methods of managing solid waste and a reduction in the reliance upon land disposal of solid waste are encouraged. In the promotion of these goals, the following waste management hierarchy in descending order of preference, is established as the solid waste management policy of the state:
a. Volume reduction at the source.
b. Recycling and reuse.
c. Other approved techniques of solid waste management including, but not limited to, combustion with energy recovery, combustion for waste disposal, and disposal in sanitary landfills.
(Emphasis added.)
Thus, under that statute, the legislature separated the concepts of "recycling" and "combustion" and we will assume that it did...
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