## Facts

- The University of Montevallo and related entities owned the Ebenezer Wetlands Ecological Preserve (the preserve), used for education and research and serving as habitat for threatened and endangered species.
- Middle Tennessee Land Development Co. bought nearby property and proposed developing and operating a large limestone quarry (described in secondary sources as a 239-acre quarry project) adjacent to the preserve.
- The university alleged the preserve’s wetlands were sustained by groundwater and rainwater rather than by surface streams, rivers, or lakes.
- The university claimed the quarry site and the preserve were connected through the same groundwater system (a common aquifer), so quarry excavation, blasting, and water handling would alter groundwater flow and quality.
- Before construction began, the university sued in 2005 seeking injunctive relief to stop the quarry, alleging that the anticipated groundwater depletion and contamination would constitute a private nuisance and an unreasonable use of groundwater.
- The university supported its claims with opinion testimony from scientific witnesses. One opinion described the predicted effect on the preserve as the “immediate and cataclysmic demise” of the wetlands if the quarry were developed.
- The university’s evidence also identified potential contamination pathways associated with quarry operations (for example, seepage from ponds and releases from industrial activity) and raised concerns about karst conditions and sinkholes increasing subsurface movement.
- The company opposed an injunction and offered opinion testimony that the quarry would not damage the preserve and might even improve wetlands hydrology.
- The case proceeded to a bench trial in the Shelby County Circuit Court in 2006.

## Issues

1. Whether the predicted depletion or contamination of groundwater from a proposed limestone quarry adjacent to the preserve would amount to an actionable private nuisance and unreasonable groundwater use warranting injunctive relief.
2. Whether the university proved a sufficiently likely, substantial, and irreparable threatened injury to justify an injunction stopping the quarry before it was constructed, rather than leaving the university to damages after harm occurred.

## Decision

- The Shelby County Circuit Court ruled for the University of Montevallo and granted relief preventing the company from proceeding with the quarry project near the preserve.
- The court treated quarrying as a lawful business in general, but concluded that the proposed quarry’s expected effects on the nearby wetlands justified stopping the project to protect the preserve.
- The court’s ruling functioned as an injunction blocking the quarry development based on the threatened harm to the preserve linked to anticipated groundwater impacts.

## Legal Principles

- A lawful land use may still be enjoined if, in the proposed location and manner of operation, it would substantially and unreasonably interfere with a neighboring owner’s use and enjoyment of land (private nuisance).
- Where a proposed activity is alleged to affect shared groundwater, a court may assess whether the expected use is unreasonable in light of the likely magnitude and character of interference with nearby property.
- Injunctive relief can be available for a threatened nuisance when the plaintiff shows a substantial risk of harm that is reasonably certain to occur and for which money damages would not provide an adequate remedy.
- In disputes centered on groundwater and wetlands effects, the outcome may turn on which side’s scientific proof the trial court finds more persuasive as to likely hydrologic change, contamination pathways, and the severity of expected injury.

## Conclusion

In this unreported Shelby County Circuit Court case, the University of Montevallo obtained an injunction stopping Middle Tennessee Land Development Co. from developing a limestone quarry adjacent to the Ebenezer Wetlands Ecological Preserve, based on evidence that the quarry’s anticipated effects on groundwater would unreasonably interfere with the preserve and cause serious, non-compensable harm.


University of Montevallo v. Middle Tennessee Land Development Co., Case No. CV 2005-624 (2006)