Tellico Plains vs TDEC
​Last Updated: Dec 2025​​
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Tellico Plains v. Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation (TDEC)
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Case No. DWS23-0190 – Currently Pending Before the Tennessee Board of Water Quality, Oil and Gas
In March 2024, after all cited issues had already been fully corrected, TDEC issued an Administrative Order assessing the Town of Tellico Plains an approximate $25,000 civil penalty for alleged monitoring, reporting, and operator certification deficiencies that occurred in 2023 during a staffing transition. No health-based (maximum contaminant level) water-quality violations were ever alleged or found.
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Timeline:
July 2023 → staffing issues arise → All issues corrected by November 2023 → March 19, 2024 TDEC Order issued → September 2025 ALJ vacates ~80 % of penalty → October 2025 both sides appeal → Currently pending before the Board of Water Quality, Oil and Gas.
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The Town contested the Order. In September 2025 an Administrative Law Judge vacated approximately 80% of the assessed contingent penalty after finding due process violations in TDEC’s penalty calculation, leaving a reduced amount. Both the Town and TDEC have appealed the ALJ’s Initial Order to the Tennessee Board of Water Quality, Oil and Gas, where the matter is presently pending.
The Town contends that TDEC’s actions reflect a broader and deeply troubling pattern of executive-branch overreach. When an administrative agency can unilaterally investigate, prosecute, impose substantial monetary penalties, and then have its own in-house judge review the matter — all within the executive branch and without neutral judicial oversight or a jury of citizens — the foundational separation of powers enshrined in both the U.S. and Tennessee Constitutions is undermined. This concentration of power echoes the very abuses the Founders sought to prevent when they divided government into three co-equal branches and guaranteed the ancient right to trial by jury (U.S. Const. Amend. VII; Tenn. Const. Art. I §§ 6, 8).
Recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent, including SEC v. Jarkesy (2024), has reaffirmed that civil penalties imposed by executive agencies for legal (as opposed to purely equitable) wrongs must be decided by an Article III court with a Right to trial by jury in federal court. The Town believes these principles apply with full force here and intends to vigorously advance separation-of-powers, non-delegation, due-process, and equal-protection arguments at the appropriate stage of the proceedings.
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All case documents are publicly available for review:
Permanent public archive: https://archive.org/details/tellico-plains-tennessee-vs-tdec-official-case-documents-2024-2025
Key documents
• TDEC Administrative Order (March 19, 2024) – issued after all violations were corrected
• ALJ Initial Order (September 2025) – vacates ~80 % of original penalty on due-process grounds
• Town’s Appeal of ALJ Order and Second Amended Petition for Board Review (October 22, 2025)
• Letter to TDEC July 2024 which details pre-Order correction of all cited issues
• Motion to Dismiss Memorandum for Constitutional Arguments
The Town is committed to defending the constitutional rights of its citizens and to ensuring that no state agency can wield unchecked power over the people it serves.
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