SIDNEY, Neb. (AP) — A special investigator says the Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission didn’t violate state open meetings law when it met last month to consider a proposed wastewater disposal well in Sioux County.

Bold Nebraska and the Nebraska Sierra Club filed a complaint that alleged the commission didn’t follow both its own meeting rules and state law.

Special investigator William Austin said Friday that because the March 24 meeting met the legal definition of a meeting for a contested case and was quasi-judicial, the state’s Open Meetings Act did not apply. Austin said in a letter to both groups that the meeting was subject to the Administrative Procedure Act and that he wasn’t authorized to investigate whether there were any violations of those laws.