Schmude Oil, Inc. v. Department of Environmental Quality

856 N.W.2d 84, 306 Mich. App. 35
CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 1, 2014
DocketDocket No. 313475
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 856 N.W.2d 84 (Schmude Oil, Inc. v. Department of Environmental Quality) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Schmude Oil, Inc. v. Department of Environmental Quality, 856 N.W.2d 84, 306 Mich. App. 35 (Mich. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

On April 27, 2012, respondent, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), denied applications for permits submitted by petitioners, [38]*38Schmude Oil, Inc., Wellmaster Exploration & Production Co., LLC, and Dennis Schmude to drill Antrim Shale1 wells. Petitioners appealed respondent’s denial of the permits in the Ingham Circuit Court, which affirmed respondent’s decision. Petitioners now appeal the circuit court’s decision by leave granted. We affirm.

I. PERTINENT FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In December 2006, petitioners filed ten applications with respondent for permits to drill and operate Antrim Shale wells. On April 9, 2010, petitioners filed an additional application for a permit to drill a brine-disposal well. All 11 proposed well sites were located on the Song of the Morning Ranch (SOMR) property, an 806-acre parcel privately owned by Golden Lotus, Inc. The SOMR is located within the Pigeon River Country State Forest (PRCSF).

Oil and gas drilling in the PRCSF has previously been the subject of litigation in Michigan courts. This Court’s opinion in Hobson Petroleum Corp v Dep’t of Quality Control, unpublished opinion per curiam of the Court of Appeals, issued December 21, 2001 (Docket No. 222992), p 2, provides the following concise history of the PRCSF:

Pigeon River was dedicated on December 7, 1973, and the Natural Resources Commission adopted “A Concept of Management for the Pigeon River Country.” The primary purpose for the dedication was to create a unified management plan to address the potential for disruption wrought by oil and gas development. After the dedication, the then Michigan Department of Natural Resources [DNR], (now Department of Environmental Quality), developed a formal plan to manage the hydrocarbon resources in the [39]*39Pigeon River area in addition to creating a comprehensive environmental impact statement. ...
In 1976, [this plan was] incorporated into a consent order and unit agreement with the major oil companies which held the bulk of mineral rights leases within Pigeon River. One year after the consent agreement, litigation arose over drilling exploratory wells within Pigeon River, which culminated in the Michigan Supreme Court issuing a permanent injunction prohibiting drilling of the wells in that area. See West Michigan Environmental Action Council v Natural Resources Comm, 405 Mich 741, 760; 275 NW2d 538 (1979).
In 1980, negotiations between environmental groups, oil companies, and the State, resulted in a second consent order [the Amended Stipulation and Consent Order (the ASCO)]. The second consent order was similar to the 1976 order....
Additionally, during this time, the Legislature passed an act incorporating the plan outlined by the consent orders which delineated the framework for all hydrocarbon development within the Pigeon River area. The act incorporated the provisions of the 1980 consent order which included a “nondevelopment region” where no drilling could occur.

The ASCO also created a “limited development region” where drilling could occur, subject to certain limitations. These regions were determined geographically as discrete units on a map of the PRCSF in appendices to the ASCO, with Unit I signifying the limited development region and Units II, III, and IV signifying the nondevelopment regions. The boundary between Units I and II bisects the SOMR property; 180 acres are in Unit I and 640 acres are in Unit II. In this case, eight of petitioners’ proposed well sites were within Unit II, while the other three were in Unit I.

The DEQ Office of Geological Survey (OGS) responded to petitioners’ permit applications and concluded that whether it would be unlawful for respon[40]*40dent to issue some or all of the SOMR well permit applications depended on whether the Pigeon River Country State Forest hydrocarbon development act of 1980 (PRHDA), also referred to as Part 619 of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act (NREPA),2 applies to privately owned land within the boundaries of the PRCSE The OGS concluded that the Part 619 applies to private lands, but suggested that horizontal wells could be a viable alternative to traditional vertical wells and would potentially be in compliance with the PRHDA. On July 10, 2007, respondent required petitioners to produce evidence of feasible and prudent alternatives, which petitioners did, under protest. Petitioners presented evidence that horizontal drilling would be high risk and economically unsound.

In a letter dated January 4, 2011, Harold R. Fitch, the assistant supervisor of wells for OGS, denied 9 of petitioners’ 11 permit applications. Fitch stated that eight of the proposed wells were within the nondevelopment region and that the permits for those wells had to be denied. The three other wells were within the limited development region. Fitch denied the permit application for one of the wells in the limited development region because it was within ¼ mile of the Pigeon River, and, therefore, “[did] not comply with Part 619.” Fitch approved the permit applications for one Antrim Shale well and one brine-disposal well in the limited development region. Fitch also concluded that drilling horizontal wells from surface locations would comply with Part 619.

Petitioners appealed this decision to the director of the DEQ, Dan Wyant. Wyant concluded that Part 619 applied to both public and private lands within the PRCSF, and denied the appeal. Petitioners appealed [41]*41that decision in the Ingham Circuit Court, which subsequently affirmed Wyant’s decision. The case is now before us on leave granted.

II. WHETHER THE ASCO APPLIES TO PRIVATE LAND

This case requires us to review the circuit court’s review of an agency decision. “[W]hen reviewing a lower court’s review of agency action this Court must determine whether the lower court applied correct legal principles and whether it misapprehended or grossly misapplied the substantial evidence test to the agency’s factual findings.” Boyd v Civil Serv Comm, 220 Mich App 226, 234; 559 NW2d 342 (1996). The facts are not in dispute, and the only question is whether respondent violated the law in denying petitioners’ well permit applications. Determining whether respondent’s decision was authorized by law requires statutory interpretation. This Court reviews de novo issues of statutory interpretation. Burleson v Dep’t of Environmental Quality, 292 Mich App 544, 548; 808 NW2d 792 (2011).

We first consider whether Part 619 adopted and incorporated the provisions of the ASCO, and conclude that it did. We begin by analyzing the sections of Part 619. MCL 324.61901 states:

(1) The legislature finds that it is in the public interest to encourage and promote safe, effective, efficient, and environmentally prudent extraction of hydrocarbon resources in the Pigeon river country state forest; and that economic benefits to the state will result from the exploration for the production of energy resources due to the taxation of production of hydrocarbon deposits and the payment of royalties to the state from production of hydrocarbon deposits, which royalties among other things enable the state to acquire and develop property for the enjoyment of the outdoor recreationists of the state.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
856 N.W.2d 84, 306 Mich. App. 35, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schmude-oil-inc-v-department-of-environmental-quality-michctapp-2014.