Court dismisses challenge to anti-pollution rule

Legal challenges to new clean water protections in Iowa raised by the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and other groups are “without merit” and should not move on to trial, a judge in the Iowa District Court for Polk County ruled Friday.

The protections, known as antidegradation rules, limit the harmful effects of new pollution in Iowa's waters. They require the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to consider how new pollution in an area might harm uses of the water like drinking, wildlife habitat, and outdoor recreation when the agency issues permits allowing new pollution discharges.

Different standards of protection apply to different waterways based on their existing quality, and the protections are stronger in places where the water is more pristine.

This rule “finally brings Iowa into compliance with the Clean Water Act,” said Cedar Rapids attorney Wallace Taylor, legal chairman of the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, which intervened in the case to support the rule.

Taylor said the DNR worked almost three years with the regulated community and environmental groups to develop the rule, which provides extra protection for high quality waters – those with pollutant levels lower than required under state rules.

Those waters include the Iowa Great Lakes and 32 northeast Iowa trout streams.

A lawsuit, brought by the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association and Iowa Water Environment Association challenged the rule, alleging that the Environmental Protection Commission's vote to approve the rule was invalid because one commission member resided out of state and another had a conflict of interest.

Carrie LaSeur, founder and president of the environmental activist group, Plains Justice, was living and voting in Montana when she cast her vote, but Judge Gunderson said the residency issue was a technical infirmity and ruled her vote was valid.

Another commission member, Susan Heathcote, was an employee of an environmental group, the Iowa Environmental Council, that pushed for approval of the antidegradation rules.

Judge Mary Pat Gunderson said Heathcote's employment did not constitute a conflict of interest because she did not profit from the outcome and because the rule finally adopted was not the same rule advocated by her employer.

The court found that the specialized expertise Heathcote brought to the commission made her

more qualified to serve there, not less so, and pointed out that the state law creating the commission in fact requires members to have knowledge of the areas of law their work will affect.

The Environmental Protection Agency approved Iowa's antidegradation rule and antidegradation implementation procedure in September 2010.