Appellate Process For Decisions About Groundwater

Under current law, the decisions or actions of the ground water commission (commission) or the state engineer regarding groundwater are appealed to a district court and the evidence that the district court may consider is not limited to the evidence presented to the commission or state engineer. Therefore, unlike appeals from other state agencies' decisions or actions under the 'State Administrative Procedure Act', a party appealing a decision or action of the commission or state engineer may present new evidence on appeal that was never considered by the commission or state engineer.

The bill limits the evidence that a district court may consider when reviewing a decision or action of the commission or the state engineer on appeal to the evidence presented to the commission or the state engineer; except that, if a district court reviewing a decision or action of the commission or state engineer determines that evidence was wrongly excluded at the administrative proceeding, the district court may consider the wrongly excluded evidence.

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)