Office of Environmental Adjudication v. J.M. Corp.

691 N.E.2d 449, 1997 Ind. App. LEXIS 1790, 1997 WL 796188
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 31, 1997
DocketNo. 49A02-9509-CV-525
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 691 N.E.2d 449 (Office of Environmental Adjudication v. J.M. Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Office of Environmental Adjudication v. J.M. Corp., 691 N.E.2d 449, 1997 Ind. App. LEXIS 1790, 1997 WL 796188 (Ind. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

OPINION

SULLIVAN, Judge.

Appellants, The Office of Environmental Adjudication (OEA), Killbuck Concerned Citizens Association and Anderson Community School Corporation (collectively, Interve-nors), appeal the trial court’s June 22, 1995 order granting summary judgment in favor of appellee, J.M. Corporation (J.M.). That order, entered by Special Judge James Coachys, vacated the May 31, 1994 final order of the Solid Waste Management Board (the predecessor to the OEA 1), which denied J.M. an operating permit for a sanitary landfill. Judge Coachys remanded the cause to the OEA in order to complete all administrative action within sixty days. The first appeal was timely made to this court.

■ Meanwhile, however, the Board, upon remand from the trial court, completed all administrative action and approved J.M.’s permit application. That determination was appealed by the Intervenors, and the trial court, by Special Judge Ronald Gottschalk, granted the Intervenors’ motion for summary judgment, vacated the OEA determination and again remanded the cause to the OEA. It is from this trial court order that the second appeal, brought by J.M., was taken and consolidated with the aforementioned action. We will address the appeals in this- order 2.

The path of the litigation, and the facts surrounding it, are long and complicated. However, insofar as the trial courts were reviewing determinations made by an administrative agency, we note that the reviewing courts, here the Marion County Superior Court and the Madison County Superior Court, are “bound by the findings of fact made by the agency if those findings are supported by substantial evidence.” Hamilton County Dept. of Pub: Welfare v. Smith (1991) Ind.App., 567 N.E.2d 165, 168. In the present action, both appeals involve reviewing courts which, contrary to law, entered their own findings of fact. As we pointed out in Moore v. Indiana Family and Social Serv. Admin. (1997) Ind.App., 682 N.E.2d 545, the review court “simply does not have the power to enter findings of fact, and as such, its findings shall be ignored.” Id. at 547.

I. THE FIRST APPEAL

We therefore turn our attention to the April 14, 1994 findings of the Board from whence we glean the facts of this case.3 In-April of 1981, J.M. submitted an application for a construction permit to build a landfill at the Mallard Lake site. A second application was submitted in November of 1982 seeking [452]*452approval of a forty-seven-acre landfill. A public hearing was held on the application. Several geological problems with the site were raised. J.M. subsequently submitted an amended landfill construction and operating application for a thirteen-acre landfill.

The Board preliminarily issued a construction permit to J.M. on March 22, 1984, and the Intervenors filed objections. On March 24, 1986, Administrative Law Judge Garret-son (the AL J) issued an order recommending that the Board approve J.M.’s preliminary construction permit with several amendments. The Board, on September 28, 1986, adopted the ALJ’s recommended order and recommended amendments, and J.M. was issued the construction permit.

At the time the Board approved J.M.’s construction permit, 330 IAC 4-5-6 (1984 Ed.) required that, as a requirement for the approval of an operating permit for a landfill, “[i]n no case shall solid waste be deposited in an aquifer. A barrier of undisturbed soil shall be maintained between the lowest portion of deposited refuse and the aquifer of a thickness to be determined by the Board.” This is the “aquifer rule”. An aquifer, in turn, is defined as a “porous water-bearing geological formation, such as sand, gravel, sandstone and fractured or cavernous limestone, from which water can be drawn by wells in useable quantities.” 330 IAC 4r-2-l.

330 IAC 4 et seq. (The Refuse Disposal Act) required that landfill proposals submit to a two-stage permit process — construction and operation.4 During the first stage, the petitioner must apply for a construction permit at least sixty days before the proposed construction date and submit various information about the landfill’s proposed plans. In turn, the Board reviews the materials and “make[s] a determination of the acceptability of the site and proposed operation with regard to protection of the public health and environment.” 330 IAC 4-3-5.

During the second stage, the petitioner applies for an operating permit at least sixty days before the proposed operation of the landfill. Included within the section regarding an operating permit are numerous requirements which the landfill must meet. Among those is the aforementioned aquifer rule.

A. The Aquifer Rule

The essence of the first appeal is that the Board had before it in April of 1994 ample evidence to conclude, as it did, that the landfill violated the aquifer rule. When examining whether J.M. had violated the aquifer rule, the Board approached the question in two parts. As noted above, the aquifer rule first states that sold waste shall not be placed in an aquifer, and then it states that a barrier of undisturbed soil should exist between the waste and the aquifer. In addressing the rule as a two-part test, the Board found that interconnection exists between the “upper sands” and the “lower aquifer” and that there was “no Required Barrier of ‘Undisturbed Soil’”. Record at 39-405. (Appx. at 1-5,7) However, it appears to this court that the aquifer simply requires one inquiry. If there is a barrier of undisturbed soil between the refuse and the aquifer, then, as a matter of logic, refuse is not deposited within the aquifer. The only question the Board needed to answer is whether there was an adequate barrier as required by the aquifer rule.

Again, the aquifer rule required a “barrier of undisturbed soil ... between the lowest portion of deposited refuse and the aquifer of a thickness to be determined by the Board.” 330 IAC 4-5-6. In addressing the issue, the April 1994 Board concluded that “the fact that J.M.’s operating permit requires compacted clay to be added to obtain a twelve foot barrier demonstrates that the natural barrier of undisturbed soil present at the site is insufficient.” Record at 37-40 (Appx.1-7).

[453]*453What the Board fails to address is the fact that, in its construction permit, J.M. was required to add compacted soil to areas so there was a twelve foot barrier above sand and gravel for the entire landfill. The condition set forth in the construction permit read:

“In areas with less than 12 feet of interface thickness above sand and gravel, either the area must be excavated, the sand and gravel removed and then backfilled with compacted clay material, or additional compacted clay material must be added at the surface to maintain the minimum 12 feet of interface thickness.” Record at 1487.

The trial court, recognizing that the Board, in one instance, required twelve feet with compacted clay and, in the other instance, denied the permit based upon the presence of compacted clay, pointed to 330 IAC 4-3-5.

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691 N.E.2d 449, 1997 Ind. App. LEXIS 1790, 1997 WL 796188, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/office-of-environmental-adjudication-v-jm-corp-indctapp-1997.