Cookman Realty Group, Inc. v. Taylor

(Filed July 3, 2002)

In the instant ease, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) appeals a lower court judgment that construed the Groundwater Protection Act, W.Va.Code, 22-12-1 to -14, and an accompanying regulation, W.Va.C.S.R. § 47-57-4.1 (1994), as precluding DEP from ordering ap-pellee Cookman Realty Group, Inc. (“Cook-man Realty”) to eliminate motor-oil contami*414nation from its property in Grant County absent evidence that Cookman Realty was the originator of such pollution. The DEP argues that the circuit court erred in failing to afford proper deference to its…