Turner v. Ga. River Network Grady Cnty. Bd. of Comm'rs

• Decision Date: 15 June 2015
• Docket Number: Nos. S14G1780,S14G1781.,s. S14G1780
• Citation: 297 Ga. 306,773 S.E.2d 706
• Parties: TURNER v. GEORGIA RIVER NETWORK et al. Grady County Board of Commissioners v. Georgia River Network et al.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

297 Ga. 306

773 S.E.2d 706

TURNER

v.GEORGIA RIVER NETWORK et al.

Grady County Board of Commissioners

v.Georgia River Network et al.

Nos. S14G1780

S14G1781.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

June 15, 2015.

Samuel S. Olens, Atty. Gen., Isaac Byrd, Deputy Atty. Gen., John E. Hennelly, James D. Coots, Senior Asst. Attys. Gen., Britt C. Grant, Asst. Atty. Gen., for Turner.

William W. Sapp, Nathaniel H. Hunt; Charles M. Cork III, for Georgia River Network.

Cook, Noell, Tolley & Bates, Edward D. Tolley, Devin H. Smith ; Kevin S. Cauley, for Grady County Board of Commissioners.

King & Spalding, Patricia T. Barmeyer, Lewis B. Jones ; Stack & Associates, Donald D. J. Stack, Kevin H. Jeselnik, amici curiae.

Opinion

BENHAM, Justice.

This appeal arises from our grant of petitions for certiorari filed by appellants Judson H. Turner, the Director of the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and the Grady County Board of Commissioners (Grady County), requesting our review of the Court of Appeals's decision in Georgia River Network v. Turner, 328 Ga.App. 381, 762 S.E.2d 123 (2014). Appellees Georgia River Network and American Rivers are both non-profit organizations. The relevant facts show that in 2010, Grady County received federal approval to construct a 960–acre fishing lake.¹ The project also entailed building a large dam and inundating 129 acres of wetlands and nine miles of streams to create the lake. To proceed with the project, Grady County was required to apply for a buffer variance through the EPD in order to disturb the stream waters that would be affected by the project. Appellees challenged the variance, arguing that Grady County's application was deficient because it failed to address buffers for the wetlands that would also be affected by the project. The Director granted the variance over appellees' objections. In a separate letter, the EPD advised appellees that wetlands did not require buffers because they generally lack wrested vegetation and were not subject to a variance request. Appellees sought review of the Director's decision from an administrative law judge (ALJ) in the Office of State Administrative Hearings. The ALJ overturned the variance, reasoning that OCGA § 12–7–6(b)(15)(A) of the Erosion and Sedimentation Act requires a buffer for all state waters, including wetlands. The Director and Grady County filed appeals challenging the ALJ's decision in the superior courts of Fulton County and Grady County, respectively. On the substantive issue of the construction and interpretation of OCGA § 12–7–6(b)(15)(A),² both trial courts determined that the Director's construction of the statute was correct and that the buffer requirement only applies to state waters that have wrested vegetation. Accordingly, the trial courts reversed the judgment of the ALJ. Appellees then appealed to the Court of Appeals.

OCGA § 12–7–6(b)(15)(A) states as follows: “There is established a 25 foot buffer along the banks of all state waters, as measured horizontally from the point where vegetation has been wrested by normal stream flow or wave action....” Citing to principles of statutory construction, the Court of Appeals concluded that this buffer requirement applies to state waters³ whether or not their banks have wrested vegetation. The Court of Appeals explained that the language regarding how the buffer is to be measured did not create an additional exception to OCGA § 12–7–6(b)(15)(A),⁴ but merely explained the location of the buffer. 328 Ga.App. at 391, 762 S.E.2d 123. In addition, the Court of Appeals reasoned that the statute was internally inconsistent and that its finding that the buffer applied to all state waters, without regard to the existence of wrested vegetation, would avoid any absurd or unintended result contrary to the legislature's purpose in enacting the legislation. Id. at 392, 762 S.E.2d 123. Based on this analysis, the Court of Appeals found the ALJ had not erred and reversed the decisions of the trial courts. We granted certiorari to determine whether the Court of Appeals erred in its construction of OCGA § 12–7–6(b)(15)(A). Because we find that it did err, its judgment is reversed.

The cardinal rule of statutory construction requires this Court to look diligently for the intention of the General Assembly (OCGA § 1–3–1 ), and the golden rule of statutory construction requires us to follow the literal language of the statute unless it produces contradiction, absurdity, or such an inconvenience as to [e]nsure that the legislature meant something else. Absent clear evidence that a contrary meaning was intended by the legislature, we assign words in a statute their ordinary, logical, and common meanings.

(Punctuation and citations omitted.) Judicial Council of Georgia v. Brown & Gallo, LLC, 288 Ga. 294, 296–297, 702 S.E.2d 894 (2010). Here, the Court of Appeals erred because the literal language of the statute does not require a buffer for state waters alongside banks without wrested vegetation. The language at issue states in pertinent part: “There is established a 25 foot buffer along the banks of all state waters, as measured horizontally from the point where vegetation has been wrested....” Had the legislature placed a period after the word “waters” rather than a comma and had gone no further, then there would be no other conclusion but that buffers are established along the banks of all state waters, regardless of the existence of wrested vegetation. But that is not what the legislature did. By adding the phrase “as measured horizontally from the point where vegetation has been wrested,” the General Assembly expressly defined how the buffer “is established.” Since the legislature offered no other method for the buffer to be established but for measuring it horizontally from the point of wrested vegetation, the buffer necessarily cannot be applied to state waters that are adjacent to banks without wrested vegetation. No further interpretation or analysis is required.

Our plain reading of OCGA § 12–7–6(b)(15)(A) is in keeping with longstanding tenets of statutory construction: “expressio unius est exclusio alterius (expression of one thing implies exclusion of another) and expressum facit cessare tacitum (if some things are expressly mentioned, the inference is stronger that those not mentioned were intended to be excluded)....” See Hammock v. State,

277 Ga. 612(3), 592 S.E.2d 415 (2004). The courts cannot construe OCGA § 12–7–6(b)(15)(A) to force an outcome that the legislature did not expressly authorize. “The doctrine of separation of powers is an immutable constitutional principle which must be strictly enforced. Under that doctrine, statutory construction belongs to the courts, legislation to the legislature. We can not add a line to the law.” (Punctuation and citation omitted.) Allen v. Wright, 282 Ga. 9(1), 644 S.E.2d 814 (2007). OCGA § 12–7–6(b)(15)(A) simply does not provide for the establishment of a buffer for state waters that are adjacent to banks without wrested vegetation.⁵ In order for the buffer requirement to apply to state waters alongside banks without wrested vegetation, the legislature would need to take action to amend the statute. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals as regards its construction of the statute is reversed.⁶

Judgment reversed.

THOMPSON, C.J., HINES, P.J., HUNSTEIN and BLACKWELL, JJ., and Chief Judge H. GIBBS FLANDERS concur.

MELTON, J., dissents.

NAHMIAS, J., disqualified.

MELTON, Justice, dissenting.

As OCGA § 12–7–6(b)(15)(A) is currently written, there is no guidance as to the measurement of a buffer zone for state waters lacking wrested vegetation. This raises an ambiguity, and, in the presence of such an ambiguity, this Court must give strong deference to the interpretation of the statute made by the Director of the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. In this case, however, the EPD's interpretation that OCGA § 12–7–6(b)(15)(A) requires no buffer at all for state waters without wrested vegetation is unreasonable, given the explicit purpose of the statute to lend some level of protection to all state waters. As a result, I must respectfully dissent.

The Erosion and Sedimentation Act of 1975 was intended to protect state waters and related wildlife and vegetation from the detrimental effects of sediment and erosion caused by land disturbing activities. OCGA § 12–7–2 plainly states:

It is found that soil erosion and sediment deposition onto lands and into waters within the watersheds of this state are occurring as a result of widespread failure to apply proper soil erosion and sedimentation control practices in land clearing, soil movement, and construction activities and that such erosion and sediment deposition result in pollution of state waters and damage to domestic, agricultural, recreational, fish and wildlife, and other resource uses. It is therefore declared to be the policy of this state and the intent of this chapter to strengthen and extend the present erosion and sediment control activities and programs of this state and to provide for the establishment and implementation of a state-wide comprehensive soil erosion and sediment control program to conserve and protect the land, water, air, and other resources of this state.

For this reason, the Legislature established buffer zones to protect state waters from land disturbing activities in their proximity. OCGA § 12–7–3(2) defines a “buffer” as “the area of land immediately adjacent to the banks of state waters in its natural state of vegetation, which facilitates the protection of water quality and aquatic habitat. ”⁷ (Emphasis supplied.) The particular buffer at issue in this matter is set forth in OCGA § 12–7–6(b)(15)(A), which requires “a 25 foot buffer along the banks of all state waters, as measured horizontally from the point where vegetation has been wrested by normal stream flow or wave action.” (...