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Can-do attitude See page 22
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St. Kateri taking the next step By Kelly J. Kaczala Press News Editor kkaczala@presspublications.com
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I know God grew it, but God also grew poison ivy. Opal Covey See page 11
Gettin' in a workout
Instructor Barb Pappas leads a group in a cardio drumming class at the Oregon Senior Center. The classes are held on Mondays at 3:30 pm. (Press photo by Ken Grosjean)
Factory farm ruling
Couple may appeal to Supreme Court By Larry Limpf News Editor news@presspublications.com Disappointed with a recent decision by the U.S. Sixth District Court of Appeals in Cincinnati regarding the permitting procedures in the Clean Water Act for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, Larry and Vickie Askins, of Cygnet, Ohio, say they are considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Vickie Askins last week said she feels their case had merit but was decided on a technicality. “We are still talking to our attorney, plus there may be interest from a pro bono attorney group,” she said. “During our oral hearing the chief judge (R. Guy Cole, Jr.) asked the Department of Justice and Attorney General attorneys why this approval process had taken 15 years and how long they could keep this ‘scheme’ going. The oral hearing was all about the merits of our case.” The appeals court decision affirms a ruling by the U.S. District Court in Toledo and dismisses the Askins’ claims against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ohio EPA and Ohio Department of Agriculture because the Clean Water Act “does not permit suits against regulators for regulatory functions” and the court lacked
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Each of these reasons deprives us of jurisdiction over the...claims.
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The Oregon Planning Commission on Tuesday will hear a request to change zoning on 15 acres of land owned by the St. Kateri Schools, which plans to develop athletic fields at the site. The Planning Commission will vote on whether to approve the request to change zoning from residential to parkland. The public meeting is at 5 p.m. in City Council chambers on Seaman Road. Last September, St. Kateri removed most of the trees on the property, an area bounded by Coy, Pickle, Schmidlin and Worden roads. Many residents who live nearby are opposed, mainly out of concern that noise from the athletic fields will disrupt their neighborhood’s peace and quiet. “They can do whatever they want until the solitude and quiet I experience now is all gone,” a resident who lives nearby told The Press last week. “That’s why I bought the property - because it is nice and quiet. They’ll probably have bands practicing over there from Cardinal Stritch. They will eventually have football games during the day and night and anything else they want to go in there because it’s going to be a park. Once you open up that door, anything can be put in there.” Mayor Mike Seferian, who is on the planning commission, said last Wednesday that the parkland zoning designation most closely fits with plans for athletic fields at the site. “If indeed there’s going to be practice fields and other recreation, then the proper zoning is `P’ that we created for parklands. We feel that is relevant. It describes what they want to do the most. It’s the closest designation in our zoning code. We have zoning for medium and high density residential, we have a multi-density residential, and light and medium density commercial and industrial. Parkland most adequately identifies what they’re doing there. I think they’re going for the right zoning.”
“subject-matter jurisdiction.” Shortly after the Toledo drinking water crisis in August 2014, the couple filed a lawsuit claiming the Ohio EPA transferred part of the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit program for CAFOs to the state’s agriculture department without approval by the U.S. EPA - a violation of the Clean Water Act. Although the state legislature had authorized the agriculture department in 2001 to apply to the U.S. EPA for approval of the transfer, the department began issuing CAFO permits without the application being approved by the EPA. To date, the federal agency hasn’t approved the application.
The agriculture department had submitted its application to the U.S. EPA in 2006. But the department, after additional amendments were made to the permit program, filed a revised application to the EPA in July 2015. At that time, the Askins’ appeal was pending. It contended if the Clean Water Act doesn’t permit their lawsuit, then “a state agency can run amok and not one citizen in Ohio can stop the resulting chaos.” Because the state didn’t meet a requirement in the NPDES permit program for states to notify the U.S. EPA of a transfer, they argued, the agriculture department and Ohio EPA were in violation of a condition of every NPDES permit issued. The appeals court, however, affirmed that a violation of the notification rule isn’t actionable in a citizen lawsuit and the notification requirement isn’t a condition of a permit. “Each of these reasons deprives us of jurisdiction over the….claims,” the court wrote. The court also said the Clean Water Act permits lawsuits against the U.S. EPA as a regulator only if it fails to perform a “nondiscretionary” duty. “While the Clean Water Act does require the U.S. EPA to withdraw approval of
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