I
received this email on October 26, 2006
from Michael O’Brien at MHI regarding
the ongoing sub-metering issue in MH Communities:
NCC Board of Governors
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
issued its decision yesterday in our lawsuit against
EPA over its submetering policy for consecutive
water systems. While the court agreed with
many of our arguments in the case, it did not find
that EPA acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner
when it exempted apartment buildings from the policy
but not manufactured home communities that submeter
water from a municipality and bill residents for
usage. In essence, the court deferred to
EPA and its authority under the Safe Drinking Water
Act to maintain water quality even though EPA has
not proven a nexus between the act of submetering
and an impact on water quality.
MHI vigorously disagrees with this ruling. As
you know, we have not been relying on the court
to settle the issue permanently and have already
been preparing to seek a legislative remedy in
the next session of Congress. Now that the
court has issued a decision, MHI and its supporters
on Capitol Hill are ready to move forward.
