An Idaho couple prevailed in a long wetlands case against the EPA.
An Idaho couple prevailed in a long wetlands case against the EPA.
All Chantell and Michael Sackett wanted to do was build a three-bedroom home on a half-acre of land. Their proposed home was in a partially built subdivision in Priest Lake, Idaho, but that desire touched off a years-long battle with Environmental Protection Agency regulators.
Regulators alleged the property owned by the Sacketts was the site of a wetland, and work needed to stop so that the couple could restore the land to its natural condition. They threatened fines up to $75,000 daily. The EPA then argued that the couple had no right to judicial review of the EPA’s decision.
The parcel that the Sacketts bought was two-thirds of an acre, zoned for residential construction with an existing sewer hookup. They took steps to begin construction and officials with the EPA showed up and made them stop work.
In 2007, months after halting the work, the couple received a compliance order notifying them that their property had a wetland and they needed a federal permit to fill that wetland. They were not allowed to build their home and were instead required to complete expensive restoration work and leave the property alone for three years as the EPA monitored the property. They were also told toe mitigate the wetland off-site and pay fines that were greater than the land was even worth.
The Pacific Legal Foundation notes that the EPA provided the couple absolutely no proof of a violation and no opportunity to contest those claims. The Pacific Legal Foundation accepted the case and took the EPA all the way to the Supreme Court, which sided with the Sacketts in 2011. It ruled that the couple, indeed, had the right to contest the EPA’s jurisdiction over their property.
In 2019 the U.S. Court for the District of Idaho ruled against the Sacketts, declaring that the wetland they were accused of filling without the necessary permits were actually protected by the Clean Water Act.
More than a dozen years later after the original filing, the EPA withdrew the complaint against the Sacketts. The Pacific Legal Foundation said it will file an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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