As expected, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has filed to exclude a letter from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) from consideration by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in the lawsuit brought by the Iowa League of Cities over sewage "bypass" rules.
". . . the league waited for nearly a year – until after the case was fully briefed and argued – to solicit letters from the states of Kansas and Iowa about the impacts that EPA's letters are supposedly having in those states," the EPA said in its motion filed Wednesday (1/9) to oppose supplementing the court record more than a month after the three-judge panel heard oral arguments in the case.
"Neither Kansas nor Iowa joined this lawsuit or sought leave to participate as amici curiae (friend of the court)," the EPA said. "Their decisions in this respect make sense, given EPA's representation that the views expressed in the challenged letters are not binding on any state permitting authority. . ."
The EPA motion called the letters from the Iowa DNR and Kansas Department of Health and the Environment (KDHE) "incorrect and irrelevant" and said they only serve "to underscore why. . . the challenged EPA letters themselves are neither final agency action nor regulations reviewable in this court."
The league attorneys had argued the letters show EPA rule interpretations (contained in letters the EPA sent U.S. Senator Charles Grassley) were limiting wastewater facility designs available to Iowa cities.
However, the EPA said the letter from the Iowa DNR (sent to the league's attorney Hall & Associates in Washington, D.C.) "fails to provide a single example of an action that the state has taken, after EPA sent the challenged letters to Sen. Grassley. . ."
Iowa DNR Water Quality Bureau Chief Shelli Grapp, who wrote the letter, said the letter wasn't meant to take a position in the lawsuit, and the state was hoping for clarification of what options the EPA will permit for the handling of sewage "bypassed" from full treatment before discharging into rivers/streams.
CLICK HERE to download a copy of the EPA motion opposing supplementing the court record.
