Even though Clarke County Reservoir Commission (CCRC) suffered a setback with the Iowa Supreme Court’s judgment in April, work on the CCRC’s reservoir project continues to move forward.
“They met with their (legal) counsel last month and since they already had reconfigured to meet the requirements of the appeal, and now they’re trying to decide what they need to do to move forward to meet the supreme court’s decision, which revolves around using eminent domain,” said Dave Beck, the reservoir’s project coordinator, during a CCRC meeting Thursday, May 21.
Supreme court
On Friday, April 10, Iowa Supreme Court announced they were siding with the appeal from local landowners in the case of the CCRC’s reservoir project that was to take place in northern Clarke County.
The reservoir is to provide a water supply for Osceola and Southern Iowa Rural Water Association (SIRWA) with an 816-acre lake, which could provide 2.2 million gallons of water per day.
West Lake, the current water source, doesn’t meet the needs of Clarke County and SIRWA.
The decision by Iowa Supreme Court overturned a local district ruling that was in favor of CCRC’s right to proceed with the reservoir project using the right of eminent domain.
Eminent domain is the government’s power to take private property for public use by a state.
Documents from Iowa Supreme Court state, “We strictly construe statutes delegating the power of eminent domain and note the absence of a clear legislative authorization for a joint public-private entity to condemn private property.”
According to court records, in an attempt to correct this potential error, CCRC showed that Clarke County Conservation Board, Clarke County Development Corporation and Clarke County Soil and Water Conservation District had withdrawn as members of the commission.
Official documents state when the appeal was filed to the supreme court, “the sole issue raised on appeal was that the district court erred by ruling the commission with private members had eminent domain powers.”
Basically, Iowa Supreme Court sided with the landowners because when the district judgment was made on eminent domain, the CCRC hadn’t reconfigured their board yet.
Going forward
However, this hasn’t stopped the progress of the reservoir project.
Beck said the CCRC can still acquire land from voluntary sellers and can continue to move forward that way for now.
“The (Iowa Supreme Court) decision doesn’t tell them step by step what they need to do to meet their requirements,” he said. “I had a landowner’s attorney tell me … the decision was kind of a riddle.”
Beck said the CCRC is currently moving forward in the reservoir process and filing the appropriate paperwork.
As for going through the court process again, Beck said the decision was “still up in the air.”
DNR
The CCRC had some good news during its monthly May meeting.
During discussion on an engineer task order for a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) detailed survey site, it was reported the DNR had approved the reservoir as a water supply source.
It was stated the DNR hasn’t permitted a new reservoir for many years, most likely since Three Mile Lake in Union County.
“I think there’s some wishful thinking in some circles that the (entire) project is stopping, and that’s not the case,” Beck said.