FDL v. Steuben County Waste Watchers, Inc., 49A02-0005-CV-301.

• Citation: 749 N.E.2d 1243
• Decision Date: 08 June 2001
• Docket Number: No. 49A02-0005-CV-301.,49A02-0005-CV-301.
• Parties: FAMILY DEVELOPMENT, LTD., Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and Indiana Office of Environmental Adjudication, Appellants-Respondents, v. STEUBEN COUNTY WASTE WATCHERS, INC., Appellee-Petitioner.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Indiana

749 N.E.2d 1243

FAMILY DEVELOPMENT, LTD., Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and Indiana Office of Environmental Adjudication, Appellants-Respondents, v. STEUBEN COUNTY WASTE WATCHERS, INC., Appellee-Petitioner.

No. 49A02-0005-CV-301.

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

June 8, 2001.

Rehearing Denied August 9, 2001.

James P. Fenton, Alan VerPlanck, Eilbacher Scott, P.C., Fort Wayne, IN, Attorneys for Appellant Family Development, Ltd.

Karen M. Freeman-Wilson, Attorney General of Indiana, Janet L. Parsanko, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellant Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

Lawrence A. Vanore, Sommer & Barnard, PC, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellee.

OPINION

BROOK, Judge.

Case Summary

Appellants-respondents Family Development, Ltd. ("FDL") and Indiana Department of Environmental Management ("IDEM") (collectively, "appellants") challenge the trial court's reversal of the Indiana Office of Environmental Adjudication's ("OEA") grant of summary judgment and dismissal against appellee-petitioner Steuben County Waste Watchers, Inc. ("Waste Watchers"). We reverse.

Issues

Appellants raise several issues for review, which we combine and restate as follows:

I. whether Waste Watchers had standing to petition for administrative and judicial review; and

II. whether the trial court erred in reversing OEA's order.

Facts and Procedural History¹

FDL's predecessor-in-interest² owned property in rural Steuben County containing approximately 4.02 acres of wetlands that it planned to excavate and fill during the construction of a proposed solid waste landfill adjacent to an abandoned landfill ("the Apollo landfill"). On April 19, 1996, FDL requested a Section 401 water quality certification ("WQC") from IDEM under 33 U.S.C. § 1341(a) as a prerequisite to obtaining a Section 404 dredge-and-fill permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under 33 U.S.C. § 1344. IDEM instructed FDL that it could not grant a WQC without adequate wetlands mitigation. On April 21, 1997, FDL submitted to IDEM a mitigation plan that proposed restoring or creating approximately seven acres "of wetland offsite adjacent to Fish Creek and it's [sic] adjacent wetlands." On June 30, 1997, IDEM issued a WQC reading in relevant part as follows:

Based on the site investigation and available information, it is the judgment of this office that the proposed project will comply with the applicable provisions of the 327 IAC 2 sections 301, 302, 303, 306, and 307³ of the Clean Water Act if the applicant complies with the conditions set forth below. Therefore, subject to the following conditions, [IDEM] hereby grants Section 401 Water Quality Certification:

1. The mitigation, monitoring, final success criteria, and land use restriction will be consistent with the plans attached to your April 21, 1997, correspondence.

2. The existing wetlands, upon which the facility intends to construct a Municipal Solid Waste Landfill, constitute a zone of recharge for the significant aquifer that underlays the site at an approximate depth of 50 feet. Because of this intimate hydraulic connection of the deeper residential water supply aquifer with surface soils, the wetland impacts are acceptable only if the design of the landfill conforms to 329 IAC 10-17-2(b) which is an upgraded design standard based on the proximity of an aquifer of significance.

3. The project engineer at the construction site will ensure that construction limits shown in the plans attached to the correspondence of April 21, 1997, will be clearly marked at all times during construction.

4. The contractor performing the actual operations must comply with Section 311 of the Federal Clean Water Act and with 327 IAC 2-6.1 concerning spills of oil and hazardous materials.

5. Deposition of dredged or excavated materials and all earthwork operations must be carried out in such a manner that soil erosion and sediment runoff to any nearby water body are controlled and minimized.

(Emphases added.)

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a public notice for the project on July 17, 1997. On August 25, 1997, Waste Watchers and an individual named June Fee Haskins ("Haskins") petitioned OEA for administrative review of the WQC and a stay of issuance pending a review decision. Waste Watchers asserted that it

is a non-profit public interest environmental organization, existing under the laws of the State of Indiana and comprised of members interested in the health and general welfare of the citizens of Steuben County who would be adversely affected by a decision having an adverse environmental impact on its members or geographical area. Many of the members are located within the watershed of the proposed landfill.

Haskins asserted that she owned real estate adjacent to the proposed landfill. Collectively referring to themselves as "Aggrieved Party," Waste Watchers and Haskins claimed that they were notified of IDEM's issuance of the WQC but were not notified that IDEM had been considering FDL's WQC request. In their petition, Waste Watchers and Haskins expressed concern that the WQC had not adequately addressed the issues of zoning, storm-water runoff, the drainage of contaminated leachate from the Apollo landfill, and the filling of the wetlands, which allegedly absorb storm-water runoff and serve as a natural filter for the contaminated leachate.

On January 13, 1998, Waste Watchers filed a summary judgment motion seeking reversal of the WQC and requesting "IDEM to open a public notice and comment period and to hold a public hearing on [FDL's] application."⁴ On January 15, 1998, FDL filed a motion to dismiss Waste Watchers and Haskins' petition or, in the alternative, for summary judgment. In its motion, FDL asserted that OEA had no jurisdiction over zoning issues⁵ and that the storm-water runoff and leachate issues were "not germane to the issuance of the [WQC], but relate[d] purely to matters of enforcement which can and would be addressed in the future in the hypothetical event that any enforcement action becomes necessary."

On January 26, 1998, IDEM filed a response to Waste Watchers' summary judgment motion and a brief in support of FDL's motion. In its brief, IDEM noted that 329 IAC 10-20-11 requires an "owner, operator, or permittee" of a municipal solid waste landfill ("MSWLF") to "design, construct, and maintain ... a run-off control system from the active portion of the MSWLF to collect and control at least the water volume resulting from a twenty-four (24) hour, twenty-five (25) year storm"; moreover, the "[r]un-off from the active portion of the MSWLF must be handled in accordance with 327 IAC 15-5,[⁶] 327 IAC 15-6,[⁷] and the discharge must meet the effluent limitations of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System ["NPDES"] under 327 IAC 5." IDEM noted that FDL "would be required to comply with this rule in the event IDEM approves its landfill application and [FDL] moved forward with the activities described in the [Section] 401 application."

On January 27, 1998, FDL filed a memorandum in opposition to Waste Watchers' summary judgment motion. With respect to the issue of notice, FDL asserted that "Waste Watchers does not even claim to own property in proximity to the land in question. Nor does it establish that its members own such property."⁸

On January 28, 1998, Waste Watchers filed a response to FDL's motion to dismiss. Waste Watchers agreed that OEA lacked jurisdiction to address zoning issues, but insisted that issues "concerning the impact of wetland[s] destruction, diversion of leachate from an adjoining landfill, and radical proposed changes in storm water runoff and drainage[ ] go to the heart of what a Section 401 determination is all about." Waste Watchers attached to its response a September 4, 1997, office memorandum from IDEM employee Brett Crump ("Crump"). Crump's memorandum reads in relevant part as follows:

7. Upon receipt of the [wetlands] mitigation plan on April 23, 1997, I reviewed the plan and made a site investigation on May 29, 1997. I confirmed the wetland delineation and assessment of the wetlands proposed to be impacted and wetland mitigation site. Based on the information available, site investigation, and my best professional judgement the project could comply with our Water Quality Standards if the landfill was constructed in a manner that properly addressed any threat to ground water.

8. Before I made the site investigation, I requested a meeting with Mr. Mike Tragesser and Mr. Thomas Brown of OSHWM [Office of Solid Hazardous Waste Management] to ascertain if there were any groundwater concerns and how to address them. We met and Mr. Brown informed me that there is an aquifer of significance located beneath the proposed landfill. He said OSHWM and Federal rules required the use of a double liner to ensure no leachate reaches the aquifer. I asked him to help me to draft a condition that I could use in the WQC to adequately protect the aquifer resulting in condition # 2 of the June 30, 1997, WQC....

9. I drafted a WQC on June 10, 1997, and forwarded it through the proper channels. The WQC was signed by Matthew Rueff, Assistant Commissioner of OWM [Office of Water Management] and mailed out June 30, 1997....

....

11. I received a call ... on July 25, 1997, from Ms. Niann Lautzenhiser, a resident of Hamilton Lake. She expressed her concerns over the project and informed me of a culvert that connected the surface flow from the wetlands proposed to be impacted with an agriculture drain to Black Creek to Hamilton Lake....

12. I was not aware of the culvert when I conducted my site investigation because it was not easily visible and Mr. Richardson [project manager for J.F. New & Associates, which requested the WQC on FDL's behalf] had called the wetlands to be impacted isolated. The presence of direct surface hydraulic links may possibly affect the project[`]s ability to comply with Water

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