ELR Citation: ELR 20182
No(s). s. 89-2021, -2022 (4th Cir. Sep 25, 1989)

The court holds that a provision of the West Virginia Solid Waste Management Act allowing the state to deny a solid waste facility siting permit that is "significantly adverse to the public sentiment" is unconstitutional because it bears no rational relationship to the state's interest in promoting the general public welfare. The court first holds that West Virginia's police power encompasses imposing restrictions on the development of solid waste disposal facilities to alleviate the deleterious effects on such inchoate community values as decreased pride and fractured spirit. The court next holds that the absence of any statutory or administrative standard for evaluating adverse public sentiment unconstitutionally deprives the siting provision of any rational relation to the goal of protecting civic welfare, spirit, and pride. The court observes that the provision's potential for "mob rule" in sensitive waste disposal decisions is too great to ignore and does not protect the administrative permit process from arbitrary and capricious decisionmaking.

Counsel for Plaintiffs-Appellees
James Ronald Snyder
Jackson & Kelly
P.O. Box 553, 1600 Laidley Tower, Charleston WV 25322
(304) 340-1000

Counsel for Defendants-Appellants
Jennifer Joy Costello
Department of Natural Resources
Office of Environmental & Regional Affairs, State Capitol Complex, Bldg. 3, Rm. 712, Charleston WV 25302
(304) 3489-2761

Leonard Kaplan
Attorney General's Office
State Capitol, Charleston WV 25305
(304) 348-9160

Before ERVIN, Chief Judge, and PHILLIPS and WILKINSON, Circuit Judges.