ELR Citation: 49 ELR 20157
No(s). 39 MAP 2018 (Pa. Sep 26, 2019)

A state high court reversed a lower court decision in a lawsuit over a hog farmer's application for a special zoning exception to construct a livestock manure storage facility. The farmer argued that a a local zoning ordinance setting forth criteria that must be met to obtain approval for the facility was expressly and unambiguously preempted by the state Nutrient Management Act (NMA) because it both regulated nutrient management and otherwise conflicted with the NMA. The court found that the state legislature did not intend for the NMA to preclude all local regulation of nutrient management, but rather to prohibit such regulation only to the extent that it was more stringent than, inconsistent with, or in conflict with the NMA. The farmer also argued that the lower court erred in holding that the NMA did not preempt the ordinance's adverse impact requirement because the farm lacked an approved nutrient management plan. The court found that the lower court's reasoning—that the requirement was not preempted under the circumstances because the farmer's use was not a nutrient management plan operation subject to the NMA—contradicted the legislature's intent, and thus that the decision was made in error. It therefore reversed the lower court.