The Friends of Great Salt Lake say they weren't given enough notice to object to the Utah Lake Master Plan.
Attorney Joro Walker filed suit earlier this month in both 3rd District Court and the Utah Supreme Court on behalf of Friends. The suit names the Utah Department of Natural Resources and executive director, Michael Styler, and the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands and its director, Dick Buehler. The suit alleges the agencies failed to post adequate notice that they were approving the master plan, which was signed by Buehler and then-Utah Lake Commission Chairman Lewis K. Billings in June 2009.
"Without notice, you don't know what an agency is doing," Walker said.
But Buehler and David Grierson, the division's sovereign lands director, said the group filed its complaint too late.
"It was nearly four months after the closing of the agreement," Buehler said. State law allows 20 days to appeal an agency's decision. He also said the state has not been served with the suit yet.
Walker filed in two different courts because of questions over which body can hear an appeal of the agency's decision. But the facts are the same, he said.
In April 2009, Friends of Great Salt Lake submitted comments on the draft master plan, expressing concerns about how the state would fulfill its mandate to protect the public trust as it relates to Utah Lake. The group also argued that the division had failed to carry out its constitutional duties.
The group's interest in Utah Lake stems from the fact that is part of the Great Salt Lake watershed.
When the state formally approved the plan in June, it sent notices to other parties, but not Friends of Great Salt Lake. Walker said the division had a mailing list of interested parties which were sent notices, but Friends was not on the mailing list, despite commenting on the lake plan.
"Because someone submits a comment does not qualify you to be on the mailing list," Walker said.
In November, Friends petitioned the department for a review of the sovereign land division's decision. The petition was rejected in January on grounds it was not filed within the required 20 days.
Grierson said Walker's clients were not included on the mailing list because they did not ask to be on it. He said the state's rules require that, besides property lessees and adjacent property owners, those who want to be notified of division actions must ask to be included on the list, a provision he said came from federal regulations.
Plus, Grierson said the decision was adequately noticed through news media coverage of the decision and the signing ceremony at Utah Lake State Park in Provo.
Walker said it is unreasonable for the public to rely on news stories to get notice of government activity.
