Court Opinion

ID: 9781494
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 16:45:00.349271+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:11:07.692550
License: Public Domain

ERVIN, Judge,
dissenting.
After a careful review of the record in light of the applicable law, I am compelled to conclude, contrary to the result reached by my colleagues, that the Sedimentation Pollution Control Act of 1973 (“SPCA”), N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-50 et. seq. (2011), does, in fact apply to situations like the one at issue here. Simply put, I believe that the damage liability provisions of the SPCA are not limited to situations in which sediment is deposited into a body of water. As a result, I respectfully dissent from the Court’s decision to affirm the trial *466court’s summary judgment order on the basis that Defendant’s activities did not result in the deposition of sediment into a river, lake, stream, or pond.1
As I understand the record, Defendants were involved in the development of a large tract of land that was located adjacent to Plaintiffs’ golf course. In order to develop the tract, Defendants obtained an approved erosion and sedimentation control plan from the Gaston County Natural Resources Department as required by the Gaston County Erosion and Sedimentation Control Program. In accordance with this approved plan, Defendants constructed silt collection basins on the tract. On 28 March 2006, the Gaston County Natural Resources Department inspected the site and found that all “reasonable measures” had not been taken to control erosion and sedimentation and that “a revision with an added berm with stone wier to the draw in the center of the property to reduce the concentrated flow to the basin” was required. Another onsite inspection found that, as of 5 May 2006, the site was being properly maintained in compliance with the plan. However, the applicable inspection report did note that Defendants needed to “[m]ake sure all basins are cleaned and maintained, per our conversation.”
On 27 June 2006, one of the silt collection basins at the site ruptured, causing a large volume of mud, water, sediment, and other debris to spill onto and damage Plaintiffs’ golf course. On 29 June 2006, the Gaston County Natural Resources Department issued an inspection report which noted that severe sedimentation damage, in the form of “offsite sediment- [disposal] onto [the] neighboring golf course” had occurred since the last inspection; determined that the development site did not comply “with SESCO/SPCA & Rules;” and cited Defendants for (1) failing to take sufficient measures to retain sediment on the site as required by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-57(3) and (2) failing to take reasonable measures to protect all public and private property from damage as required by 15A NCAC 04B.0105. As a result, the Gaston County Natural Resources Department served Defendants with a notice of non-compliance requiring Defendants to “[r]estore adequate sediment control measures, to retain sediment on site” and to “[m]ake sure all areas are cleaned and restored per approved plan.”
*467Although some repair work was undertaken following the rupture, storms continued to fill the basin, which overflowed onto Plaintiffs’ golf course on a number of additional occasions during the ensuing months. The Gaston County Natural Resources Department found the existence of a violation stemming from the fact that no revised plan to correct the previous violations had been submitted on 13 July 2006. On 23 August 2006, another inspection report indicated that Defendants were not “in compliance with SESCO/SPCA & Rules” given that Defendant had failed (1) to submit a revised plan; (2) to provide adequate groundcover; (3) to take all reasonable measures to protect public and private property from damage; and (4) to maintain erosion control measures. Although the report stated that the ’“[s]ite appealed] to be stable since [the] basin [] blew out... the Gaston County Natural Resources Department noted that the “[o]utlet pipe in [the] basin [] is not installed per plan” and that, given “the volume of water coming onto the neighboring golf course, an adjustment in the pipe needs to be made.” The Gaston County Natural Resources Department continued to issue violation notices relating to the site at which the rupture occurred through March 2009.
In seeking an award of damages based on the SPCA, Plaintiffs alleged that the golf course was damaged by “silt, mud, debris, and water” as the result of the basin rupture and overflow and that Defendants had (1) “engaged in land-disturbing activity that disturbed more than one acre of land on the parcel without installing erosion and sedimentation control devices and practices that were sufficient to retain the sediment generated by the land-disturbing activity within the boundaries of the parcel” and (2) “began land-disturbing activity that disturbed moré than one acre on the parcel without filing or complying with erosion and sedimentation control plans with the governing agency.” As a result of the fact that Plaintiffs’ ability to establish the existence of facts necessary to support these allegations appears to be undisputed, the ultimate issue raised by the trial court’s decision to grant summary judgment in favor of Defendant Hunter with respect to Plaintiffs’ SPCA claim is whether such a showing suffices to establish damage liability under the SPCA.
According to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-66(a):
Any person injured by a violation of this Article or any ordinance, rule, or order duly adopted by the Secretary or a local government, or by the initiation or continuation of a land-*468disturbing activity for which an erosion and sedimentation control plan is required other than in accordance with the terms, conditions, and provisions of an approved plan, may bring a civil action against the person alleged to be in violation (including the State and any local government). The action may seek any of the following:
(1) Injunctive relief.
(2) An order enforcing the law, rule, ordinance, order, or erosion and sedimentation control plan violated.
(3) Damages caused by the violation.
Thus, according to the literal language of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-66(a), any person who sustains an injury stemming from (1) a violation of any of the SPCA’s provisions; (2) a violation of any rule or ordinance adopted by the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources or a local governmental body authorized by the SPCA; or (3) any land-disturbing activity for which an erosion and sedimentation control plan is required which is not conducted in accordance with the terms, conditions, and provisions of an approved plan has a right to seek an award of damages from the responsible party. •
According to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-52(6), a land-disturbing activity includes “any use of the land by any person in residential, industrial, educational, institutional or commercial development, highway and road construction and maintenance that results in a change in the natural cover or topography and that may cause or contribute to sedimentation.” As a result, any use of land which could cause sedimentation is subject to the SPCA, with the extent to which sedimentation actually occurs essentially irrelevant to the determination of whether a particular activity is “land-disturbing.” In the event that any “land-disturbing activity” that will disturb more than one acre is undertaken, “the person conducting [the activity] shall install erosion and sedimentation control devices and practices that are sufficient to retain the sediment generated by the land-disturbing activity within the boundaries of the tract during construction upon and development of the tract[.]” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-57(3). In addition, any land-disturbing activity must “be conducted in accordance with the approved erosion and sedimentation control plan.” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-57(5). “A local government may submit... an erosion and sedimentation control program for its jurisdiction” for approval, with “local governments [being] authorized to adopt ordinances and regulations necessary to establish and enforce erosion and sedimentation *469control programs” so long as they “meet [or] exceed the minimum requirements of [the SPCA] and the rules adopted pursuant to [the SPCA].” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-60(a). As a result, given that the SPCA requires that any person who undertakes a land-disturbing activity “install erosion and sedimentation control devices and practices that are sufficient to retain the sediment generated by the land-disturbing activity within the boundaries of the tract. . .” and to conduct activities “in accordance with an approved erosion and sedimentation control plan,” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-57(3), (5), the literal language of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-66(a) clearly permits an injured party to seek an award of damages in the event that such a party sustains loss or damage stemming from another’s failure to install sedimentation control devices and practices sufficient to retain sediment on a disturbed tract or to follow an approved sedimentation control plan.
According to Plaintiffs’ complaint, the golf course was damaged by “silt, mud, debris, and water” as the result of the rupture and overflow of the basin. As we have already noted, Plaintiff alleged that Defendants had (1) “engaged in land-disturbing activity that disturbed more than one acre of land on the parcel without installing erosion and sedimentation control devices and practices that were sufficient to retain the sediment generated by the land-disturbing activity within the boundaries of the parcel” and (2) “began land-disturbing activity that disturbed more than one acre on the parcel without filing or complying with erosion and sedimentation control plans with the governing agency.” At the time of the hearing that led to the trial court’s decision to enter summary judgment in favor of Defendants with respect to the issue of their liability to Plaintiffs under the SPCA, Plaintiffs’ forecast sufficient evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to them, to support a determination that the damage to Plaintiffs’ golf course resulted from Defendants’ failure to (1) take sufficient measures to retain sediment on site; (2) take all reasonable measures to protect all public and private property from damage stemming from Defendants’ land-disturbing activities; and (3) follow an approved erosion and sedimentation control plan. Thus, I believe that Plaintiff has stated a claim for and forecast sufficient evidence to establish a viable claim for relief pursuant to the SPCA. Kessing v. Mortgage Corp., 278 N.C. 523, 534-35, 180 S.E.2d 823, 830 (1971).
In reaching a contrary determination, the Court concludes that Plaintiffs do not have a viable damage claim against Defendants pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-66(a) because the deposition of sedi-*470merit into a body of water is an indispensable element of such a claim. The Court appears to reach this conclusion because (1) N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-51, which delineates the policy considerations that motivated the enactment of the SPCA, states that sedimentation consists of “the erosion or depositing of soil and other materials into the waters;” (2) we have interpreted N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-51 to mean that “the stated legislative intent behind the enactment of the SPCA ... is to protect against the sedimentation of our waterways;” McHugh v. N.C. Dept of E.H.N.R., 126 N.C. App. 469, 476, 485 S.E.2d 861, 866 (1997); (3) the definition of “land-disturbing activity” contained in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-52(6) incorporates such a “deposition into a body of water” requirement given that it references N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-51; and (4) the decisions of this Court upon which Plaintiffs rely are distinguishable from the present case because they all involved the deposition of sediment into water. I do not find the Court’s analysis persuasive.
I simply do not read N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-51, the definition of “land-disturbing activity” set out in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-52(6), or the language of our prior opinions addressing SPCA-related issues in the same manner that my colleagues do. As has been previously demonstrated, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-66(a) authorizes a damage recovery stemming from any injury resulting from a violation of the SPCA; a violation of an ordinance, rule, or order duly adopted by a local government; or the initiation or continuation of a land-disturbing activity in the absence of compliance with an appropriate erosion and sedimentation control plan. Although N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-51 does state that “[c]ontrol of erosion and sedimentation is deemed vital to the public interest and necessary to the public health and welfare” and that “the purpose of [the SPCA is] to provide for the creation, administration, and enforcement of a program and for the adoption of minimal mandatory standards which will permit development of this State to continue with the least detrimental effects from pollution by sedimentation,” the relevant statutory language simply does not indicate that the provisions of the SPCA only apply to situations involving “erosion or depositing of soil and other materials into the waters.” Instead, it is clear to me that the relevant statutory provisions, taken as a whole, are directed at activities that both result in and create a risk of erosion and sedimentation. I believe that the validity of this assertion is confirmed by the fact that a “land-disturbing activity” subject to the provisions of the SPCA is one which “may cause or contribute to sedimentation,” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-52(6) *471(emphasis added), rather than one which actually does result in sedimentation. For that reason, the reference to “sedimentation” in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-52(6) cannot be understood to incorporate a “deposition into a body of water” requirement. Finally, the fact that the relevant decisions of this Court have, to date, involved actual sedimentation rather than the risk of such a result provides no indication that the damage claim made available by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-66(a) is not available to a party, such as Plaintiffs, who sustained injury as the result of non-compliance with the requirements of the SPCA.
Thus, for the reasons set forth above, I believe that Plaintiff has forecast sufficient evidence, if believed, to establish a right to recover damages pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 113A-66(a) in the event that Defendant Hunter is a covered entity. As a result, I respectfully dissent from the Court’s decision to the contrary and would proceed to an examination of the remaining coverage issue that is also debated in the parties’ briefs.

. Although Plaintiffs contend in their reply brief that a body of water was, in fact, adversely affected by Defendants’ activities, I do not believe that we need to address the extent, if any, to which Plaintiffs established that Defendants’ alleged noncompliance with the SPCA affected a stream or wetland given my belief that impact upon a body of water is not a necessary component of Plaintiffs’ SPCA claim.