Court Blocks New Virginia Municipal Waste Daily Volume Laws
A federal judge blocked enforcement of several of
Virginia’s new municipal waste laws in a decision issued June 29, in the
case of Waste Management Holdings, Inc. v. Gilmore (Governor of Virginia).
District Court Judge James R. Spencer held that the laws, which would have
restricted river transportation of municipal waste and limited the size of
Virginia’s largest landfills, discriminated against interstate commerce in
violation of the U.S. Constitution’s implied protection against States
interfering with interstate commerce. Judge Spencer held that the new laws
were unconstitutionally tainted by Virginia’s publicly announced intentions
of reducing waste imports through this legislation. The new laws were slated
to take effect July 1st.
Three of the challenged provisions concerned river
transportation of municipal waste. One would have prohibited barge
transportation of municipal waste on the Rappahannock, James and York rivers.
Virtually no Virginia waste was transported on these rivers and large
quantities of New York waste are transported on the James. A related provision
would have prevented transportation of municipal waste on any Virginia river
until certain regulations were written. The judge held that the purpose and
effect of these provisions were discriminatory as they would have had a
profound effect on the importation of waste and almost no effect on waste
generated within Virginia. A third provision limited the stacking height of
waste containers on river barges to less than half of the alleged industry
standard. The judge felt that this provision was designed to make river
transport economically unfeasible, again disproportionately affecting
out-of-state waste.
The final provision blocked in the court’s decision would
have capped the size of Virginia’s largest municipal waste landfills, the
only landfills taking any significant amounts of out-of-state waste. These
same landfills reportedly accept almost exclusively out-of-state waste. For
these reasons, the judge concluded that the cap provision was discriminatory.
Enforcement of these statutory provisions is now judicially
barred by a preliminary injunction until a permanent injunction is issued or
denied. That decision will probably not be made for several months, at a
minimum. A permanent injunction will not be issued if the Commonwealth of
Virginia proves that there were no alternative ways to regulate the waste to
meet the legitimate goals of the Commonwealth. In the meantime, Virginia’s
Attorney General L. Mark Earley reportedly plans to appeal the preliminary
injunction.