City of Moore v. Central Oklahoma Master Conservancy District

1968 OK 81, 441 P.2d 452
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 28, 1968
Docket41688
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 1968 OK 81 (City of Moore v. Central Oklahoma Master Conservancy District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Moore v. Central Oklahoma Master Conservancy District, 1968 OK 81, 441 P.2d 452 (Okla. 1968).

Opinion

LAVENDER, Justice.

This action was begun in the District Court of Cleveland County, Oklahoma, as a suit to enjoin the defendants from discharging sewage effluent into the Little River watershed. The action was brought by the Central Oklahoma Master Conservancy District and the City of Norman, a municipal corporation. The defendants included The City of Moore, Oklahoma, a municipal corporation; The Moore Public Works Authority; and The Moore Development Authority. The last two agencies were and are public trusts. It is undisputed that whatever rights involved herein which were possessed by the original Town of Moore was succeeded to and may now be properly exercised by defendant, The City of Moore, and/or by the public trusts pursuant to contractual arrangements as between said defendants. The plaintiffs and the defendants, unless referred to by name, shall be hereinafter referred to collectively by their trial court designations.

After a hearing, a temporary injunction was issued by the trial court and, upon posting of an approved bond, the same became effective shortly after this action was begun.

*455 After the issuance of the temporary injunction, the State of Oklahoma ex rel. Kirk T. Mosley, Commissioner, State Department of Health, was permitted to intervene.

Plaintiffs complained that unless the defendants were enjoined they would discharge effluent from their sewage treatment plants into the watershed of the Little River and thus pollute the water reservoir operated by plaintiffs and from which the plaintiff City of Norman, as well as Midwest City and Del City, also municipal corporations of Oklahoma, intend to obtain water for domestic use. The plaintiffs complained that there was a reasonable expectation that the discharge of effluent would be a public nuisance detrimental to the health and well being of the users of water from the reservoir. It was also contended by plaintiffs and in particular, by the State ex rel. the Commissioner of the State Department of Health, that the defendants’ permit to construct its present sewage facilities was issued upon and subject to a condition that as soon as the reservoir was completed and ready to impound water that defendants would cease discharging effluent into the watershed of the river but would instead pump such effluent out of the Little River basin and over a ridge into the South Canadian River.

The defendants’ answer was to the effect that 1) defendants had obtained a vested right to discharge sewage effluent into the Little River watershed because they (or the Town of Moore) had been doing so since 1935; 2) that defendants’ sewage treatment plant was a modern plant constructed according to approved methods and was being operated in a proper manner; 3) that the effluent therefrom was not, nor was it in danger of becoming, a hazard to the health of the users of plaintiffs’ reservoir water; and 4) that to enjoin defendants from continuing to dischage the sewage effluent as they had done for so many years was to, in effect, deprive them of a valuable property right without due process of law.

The trial of the action resulted in finding of fact and conclusions of law of the trial court upon which it based its judgment perpetually -enjoining the defendants from discharging effluent from this sewage treatment facility into- the Little River watershed. The defendants’ subsequently filed motion for new trial was denied by the trial court and defendants have appealed, asserting as error the following contentions, or propositions:

“Proposition 1. The court is without authority to declare a properly operated and maintained sewage disposal system a nuisance.
“Proposition 2. Before plaintiffs are entitled to injunctive relief, they must establish to a reasonable probability by clear, convincing and satisfactory evidence all the material elements necessary to obtain the injunction.
“Proposition 3. The law of the case must be applied to the facts of the case and the judgment rendered must be in accordance with the law and the facts.
“Proposition 4. The defendants, having a vested right [to discharge sewage effluent into the drainage basin of the Little River Reservoir], cannot be deprived of that vested right without due process of law and without just compensation.”

In reviewing this record, it seems fair to say that the evidence does establish (as defendants contended) that the sewage treatment plant in question was properly constructed and is being efficiently and properly operated and that the plant is removing as much deleterious and harmful material as is possible to remove from the sewage, considering man’s knowledge and his present capacity for designing, constructing, and operating such a facility The matter is not, however, subject tc such a simple solution as merely decreeing that therefore the trial court was not correct and that the defendants should be permitted to continue to discharge sewage effluent into the Little River basin.

*456 The evidence revealed that on September 10, 1959, the plaintiff, Central Oklahoma Master Conservancy District, was formed for the purpose of constructing a dam across Little River to- impound the waters of that river and tributaries to supply a source of water for the cities of Norman, Midwest City, and Del City. That sometime in 1961 the plaintiff, the State Department of Health, informed the officials of the Town of Moore that the construction of the dam would require Moore’s sewage plant to be located outside the drainage area which would serve the reservoir. Conferences were thereafter held between representatives of the State Department of Health and the Town of Moore regardng the problem. As one of the results of these conferences, the Town of Moore was advised that it could construct its new plant within the Little River drainage area, but that as soon as the reservoir began collecting water the effluent from the sewage plant would have to be pumped out of the Little River basin and into the South Canadian River.

On September 4, 1962, the defendants submitted to the State Department of Health a written application for permission to construct its present sewage plant. Plans and specifications showing location and type of proposed pedestals for later installation of effluent pumps were submitted and approved. The defendants’ engineer submitted along with the application and plans a letter, which appears in the record, and in which he stated: “The construction schedule of the Little River dam contemplates closing the gates in November, 1964. The Health Department and the Conservation District have placed us on notice that they will require us to pump the sewage plant effluent over the ridge to the west into the South Canadian River after the reservoir starts collecting water in 1965. The pumping operation will not be needed until November, 1964. We do not propose to build the facilities until they are needed.”

On October 1, 1962, pursuant to- the above application, the Commissioner of Health issued a permit which in part reads as follows:

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1968 OK 81, 441 P.2d 452, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-moore-v-central-oklahoma-master-conservancy-district-okla-1968.