In Re the Appeal of Rocheleau

686 N.W.2d 882, 2004 Minn. App. LEXIS 1121, 2004 WL 2165872
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedSeptember 28, 2004
DocketA03-2046
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 686 N.W.2d 882 (In Re the Appeal of Rocheleau) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re the Appeal of Rocheleau, 686 N.W.2d 882, 2004 Minn. App. LEXIS 1121, 2004 WL 2165872 (Mich. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

HALBROOKS, Judge.

Relators challenge a decision by the Carver County Board of Commissioners affirming Carver County Environmental Services’ decision that relators’ septic system had the potential to immediately threaten public health or safety and requiring them to submit a new design for a replacement septic system. Relators argue that (1) the county ordinance is preempted by state law; (2) the board’s decision is unreasonable, oppressive, arbitrary, without evidentiary support, and based on an erroneous theory of law; (3) the relevant statute violates the separation-of-powers clause by vesting quasi-judicial authority in executive-branch employees without a mechanism for judicial review; (4) the statute violates the due-process clauses of the state and federal constitutions by creating an irrebuttable presumption; and (5) the relevant rules, which have been incorporated into the ordinance, are void for vagueness and for *886 creating an irrebuttable presumption. We affirm.

FACTS

Carver County1 adopted an individual-sewage-treatment system (ISTS) ' ordinance pursuant to Minn.Stat. §§ 115.55, 115.56 (2002) and Minn.Stat. ch. 145A (2002). See Carver County, Minn., Code of Ordinances § 52.002 (2001). 1 The ordinance regulates the design, location, installation, inspection, use, monitoring, and maintenance of all ISTSs located in Carver County, and it incorporates by reference all of Minn. R. 7080 (2003), the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s (MPCA) ISTS program rules, except as amended in the ordinance. Carver County, Minn., Code of Ordinances § 52.001 (2001). The goal of the ordinance is to prevent adverse health and safety effects to the public and- the environment from the discharge of inadequately treated sewage. Id. Carver County’s ISTS program is administered by Carver County Environmental Services (CCES).

Under the applicable statute, rules, and ordinance, several requirements apply to ISTSs. Relevant here is the “vertical separation” requirement. “Vertical separation” is the vertical measurement of unsaturated soil or sand between the bottom of an ISTS’s distribution median and saturated soil or bedrock. Minn. R. 7080.0020, subp. 49b. To measure vertical separation, one must determine the depth of the seasonally high water table or “saturated soil” and compare it to the depth of the bottom of the existing ISTS or the system being designed. This measurement is significant because if there is an insufficient amount of unsaturated soil or sand below the system, inadequately treated sewage can reach the saturated soil and move into nearby bodies of water.

“Saturated soil” is defined as “the highest elevation in the soil that is in a reduced chemical state because of soil voids being filled with water.” Id. at subp. 29a. Saturated soil is evinced by the “presence of redoximorphic features or other information.” Id. “Redoximorphic features” are defined as “features formed in saturated soil by the process of reduction, translocation, and oxidation of iron and manganese compounds, or other soil, landscape or vegetative indicators.” Id. at subp. 28e; see also Minn. R. 7080.0110, subp. 4(D)(5). This is commonly known as “mottling.” Id. Generally, mottling occurs when water has remained in soil for a significant period of time, depleting the soil’s oxygen and causing the microbes living there to search for oxygen in nitrates, iroii, and manganese compounds. When the water ultimately drains, varying concentrations of the compounds are distributed throughout the soil, and the reoccurrence of oxygen creates variances in color. Thus, color variances are a common visual indicator of redoximorphic features, with light spots indicating soil in a reduced state and dark spots tending to show oxidized soil. Although “false mottling” can occur where color variances in the soil are due to the presence of calcium carbonates, as opposed to a reduced environment caused by water in the soil, a “weak acid” test can be used to determine whether calcium carbonates have caused mottling. According to the expert testimony presented in this case, the “other information” evincing saturated soil can include the nature, content, permeability, classification, and slope of the soil, as determined by observation, examination, testing, or reference materials. It *887 can also include hydrology information from reference materials, water-level measurements, and other observations and testing.

Any ISTS built before April 1, 1996, must have at least two feet of vertical separation between the bottom of the system’s distribution medium and saturated soil or bedrock. Minn. R. 7080.0060,- subp. 3(B). Any ISTS built after March 31, 1996, must have three feet of vertical separation. Id. An existing ISTS is classified as “failing” if it lacks the requisite vertical separation. Minn. R. 7080.0020, subp. 16b. Furthermore, an existing ISTS is classified as an imminent threat to public health or safety (IPHT) if it creates a situation “with the potential to immediately and adversely affect or threaten public health or safety.” Id. at subp. 19a. Such situations include discharging sewage to the ground surface or surface water and sewage backing up into a dwelling or other establishment. Id. Discharging to a draintile is also considered an IPHT according to the MPCA’s compliance inspection form.

In May 2001, Carver County received an anonymous complaint that the ISTS on relators Robert and Julie Rocheleau’s property was discharging sewage into nearby Smith Lake. Shortly thereafter, CCES employees Mary West and Scott Weinzierl visited relators’ property to investigate the complaint, where they located the discharge point near the lake and observed effluent coming out of it. The next day, CCES sent a letter to relators requesting that they provide them with information about their ISTS.

Relators subsequently hired Jim Wiek-enhauser, a licensed ISTS inspector, to perform a compliance inspection. In his December 2001 report, Wickenhauser made no mention of the draintile that ran toward Smith Lake or the PVC pipe connecting the septic tank to it. He did note, however, that the septic-tank depth was such that any drainfield would be down 48 inches and that he had found mottling at 42 inches. Based on these findings, Wick-enhauser classified relators’ ISTS as an IPHT, pursuant to Minn. R. 7080.0020, subp. 19a, and Carver County, Minn., Code of Ordinances § 52.003 (2001). Wicken-hauser also classified the ISTS as “failing” because it had less than three feet of vertical separation between the system bottom and saturated soil, as indicated by mottling at 42 inches. Based on Wickenhauser’s report, CCES notified relators that their ISTS constituted an IPHT and ordered them to bring it into compliance within ten months. See Carver County, Minn., Code of Ordinances § 52.075(B) (2001) (requiring that “[a] system determined to be failing or non-complying and an IPHT must be brought into compliance within ten months of the date of discovery”).

In August 2002, relators hired Bob Koch, a licensed ISTS contractor, to design a new ISTS. Koch visited the site and found mottling at 48 inches, a slope of seven percent, and a percolation rate of 33.6 minutes per inch.

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686 N.W.2d 882, 2004 Minn. App. LEXIS 1121, 2004 WL 2165872, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-appeal-of-rocheleau-minnctapp-2004.