ELR Citation: ELR 20716
No(s). 89-380-2-MAC (WDO) (M.D. Ga. Feb 22, 1990)

The court holds that a county's use of a Georgia statute to prohibit a waste management company from operating a regional landfill violates the Commerce Clause and entitles the company to an injunction prohibiting further interference. The landfill was operated jointly by the county and a municipality until the municipality terminated the arrangement and contracted with a waste management company for the landfill's operation, giving the company the right to receive waste from intrastate and interstate customers. The county objected to the company's intentions to operate the landfill regionally, citing a Georgia statute that requires waste haulers to obtain permission from the counties where the landfill is located and the waste is collected. The court first holds that the county's application of the Georgia statute to bar the company's operation of the landfill violates the Commerce Clause. Unlike previous decisions upholding waste bans, the county's intent is to absolutely prohibit operatior of a regional landfill at both the disputed site and any other site in the county. Further, feasibility studies indicate that county-generated waste will not support the landfill's proper operation. The municipality has determined that its legitimate interest in providing its citizens with waste disposal is best accomplished by allowing the waste management company to operate the landfill, and the county has no present interest in the disputed site, since its contractual interest with the municipality expired by court order in December 1989. The court next permanently enjoins the county from interfering with the company's operation of the landfill through unconstitutional use of the Georgia statute. The county's sovereign immunity deprives the company of an adequate remedy at law, and nonissuance of injunctive relief would expose it to irreparable injury from the county's stated intent to prohibit the company's operation of the landfill.

Counsel for Plaintiff
L. Robert Lovett
Smith, Hawkins, Almand & Hollingsworth
230 Third St., P.O. Box 6495, Macon GA 31208
(912) 743-4436

Counsel for Defendants
John C. Daniel III
Martin, Snow, Grant & Napier
240 Third St., P.O. Box 1606, Macon GA 31202-1606
(912) 743-7051

W. Franklin Freeman Jr.
Mills, Freeman, Vaughn & Sosebee
20 East Main St., Forsyth GA 31029
(912) 994-5134