Hackensack Meadowlands v. Mun. Landfill Auth.

• Citation: 68 N.J. 451,348 A.2d 505
• Parties: HACKENSACK MEADOWLANDS DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION AND STATE OF NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS, v. MUNICIPAL SANITARY LANDFILL AUTHORITY, A JOINT VENTURE OF WILLIAM A. KEEGAN, INC., RECLAMATION AND IMPROVEMENT CO., PETER ROSELLE & SONS, INC. AND DELAWARE SANITARY CO., DEFENDANTS-RESPONDENTS, AND CITY OF YONKERS, NEW YORK, DEFENDANT-INTERVENOR-RESPONDENT. CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, ETC., ET ALS, PLAINTIFFS-RESPONDENTS, AND JOHN P. FAZZIO LANDFILL, INC., T/A JOHN P. FAZZIO LANDFILL CO., ET AL, PLAINTIFFS-INTERVENORS-RESPONDENTS, v. STATE OF NEW JERSEY, ET AL, DEFENDANTS-APPELLANTS.
• Decision Date: 18 November 1975
• Court: United States State Supreme Court (New Jersey)

68 N.J. 451

348 A.2d 505

HACKENSACK MEADOWLANDS DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION AND STATE OF NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS, v. MUNICIPAL SANITARY LANDFILL AUTHORITY, A JOINT VENTURE OF WILLIAM A. KEEGAN, INC., RECLAMATION AND IMPROVEMENT CO., PETER ROSELLE & SONS, INC. AND DELAWARE SANITARY CO., DEFENDANTS-RESPONDENTS, AND CITY OF YONKERS, NEW YORK, DEFENDANT-INTERVENOR-RESPONDENT. CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, ETC., ET ALS, PLAINTIFFS-RESPONDENTS, AND JOHN P. FAZZIO LANDFILL, INC., T/A JOHN P. FAZZIO LANDFILL CO., ET AL, PLAINTIFFS-INTERVENORS-RESPONDENTS, v. STATE OF NEW JERSEY, ET AL, DEFENDANTS-APPELLANTS.

The Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Argued December 2, 1974.

Decided November 18, 1975.

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Mr. Stephen Skillman, Assistant Attorney General, argued the cause for defendants-appellants (Mr. William F. Hyland, Attorney General of New Jersey, attorney; Mr. Skillman, of counsel; Mr. Mark L. First, Deputy Attorney General, on the brief).

Mr. Herbert F. Moore argued the cause for plaintiffs-respondents, City of Philadelphia, etc., et al (Messrs. Jamieson, Walsh, McCardell, Moore and Peskin, attorneys; Mr. Moore, of counsel; Mr. Arthur Meisel, on the brief).

Mr. Vincent J. Dotoli argued the cause for plaintiffs-intervenors-respondents, John P. Fazzio, Inc., t/a John P. Fazzio Landfill Co., et al.

Mr. David Samson argued the cause for defendants-respondents, Municipal Sanitary Landfill Authority, etc. (Messrs. Leib, Wolff and Samson, attorneys).

Mr. Stephen Skillman, Assistant Attorney General, argued the cause for plaintiffs-appellants (Mr. William F. Hyland, Attorney General of New Jersey, attorney; Mr. Skillman, of counsel; Mr. Mark L. First, Deputy Attorney General, on the brief).

The opinion of the Court was delivered by MOUNTAIN, J.

These proceedings involve the joint review of two separate cases. In one case the judgment was entered pursuant to an opinion rendered in Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission v. Municipal Sanitary Landfill Authority, 127 N.J. Super. 160 (Ch. Div. 1974). In the other, judgment was entered following the rendition of an oral opinion in a suit brought by the City of Philadelphia, together with the owners of several landfill operations in South Jersey, against the State of New Jersey and its Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The cumulative effect of these two judgments was to render unconstitutional certain sections of the Waste Control Act, N.J.S.A. 13:11-1 et seq., together with regulations promulgated by DEP and by the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission (HMDC). The measures declared unconstitutional had as their purpose the exclusion from this State of solid waste originating elsewhere. In each suit the trial court found that the laws and regulations under review violated the Commerce Clause, Article I, § 8, clause 3, of the United States Constitution.

I

The comprehensive authority and responsibility delegated by the Legislature to the HMDC in the Hackensack Meadowlands Reclamation and Development Act, N.J.S.A. 13:17-1 et seq., includes the power to provide facilities for the treatment and disposal of solid waste. N.J.S.A. 13:17-6(w), 13:17-10. The Waste Control Act, N.J.S.A. 13:11-1 et seq., as originally enacted, contained a legislative finding "that the quality of New Jersey's environment is being threatened by the treatment and disposal of wastes generated or collected outside the State ..." N.J.S.A. 13:11-2. By amendments to this act that became effective early in 1974, the Legislature further found that the whole problem of solid waste disposal was growing increasingly acute and that it continued to be seriously exacerbated by the importation of waste from without the State; it determined to and did forbid that any further such waste be brought into the State.¹ The Waste Control Act also authorized and directed the DEP to promulgate rules and regulations "prohibiting ... the incineration or landfill of solid waste and the treatment or disposal of liquid wastes within the State which originated or were collected outside the territorial limits of the State." N.J.S.A. 13:1I-4. Both HMDC and DEP promulgated regulations responsive to these legislative enactments, all looking to bar the importation of solid and liquid waste from outside the State.²

In order to enforce these statutes and rules HMDC and DEP filed a complaint seeking permanently to enjoin Municipal Sanitary Landfill Authority (hereinafter MSLA)³ from accepting for disposal at its landfill sites any solid waste originating or collected outside of the State's territorial borders.⁴. At the same time, with the consent of the defendants, an order to show cause issued with temporary restraints prohibiting MSLA from accepting for disposal out-of-state waste. On the return day of the order to show cause, defendants answered, challenging the constitutionality of both the DEP and HMDC regulations as well as the statutes authorizing their promulgation. Thereafter the City of Yonkers, New York, was granted leave to intervene as a party defendant, as it was then using an MSLA site to dispose of its municipal refuse. No testimony was taken; the parties relied on affidavits and the transcript of previous proceedings before the Hackensack Meadowlands Commission. In February, 1974, the trial judge filed a written opinion declaring the DEP and HMDC regulations to be in contravention of the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution and therefore invalid. Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission v. Municipal Sanitary Landfill Authority, supra, 127 N.J. Super. 160 (Ch. Div. 1974). Judgment was temporarily stayed and on March 26, the Appellate Division granted plaintiffs' motion for a further stay pending determination of the appeal. Upon application by plaintiffs, this Court granted certification while the appeal was pending unheard in the Appellate Division, R. 2:12-2, 66 N.J. 337 (1974).

In January, 1974, in a separate plenary suit, the City of Philadelphia, together with other plaintiffs mentioned above, filed a complaint seeking a declaration that the Waste Control Act, as well as the regulations promulgated pursuant thereto, violated the Constitutions of both the United States and the State of New Jersey, and further seeking temporary and permanent injunctive relief restraining DEP from enforcing the statutory provisions and from adopting or enforcing regulations intended to be in furtherance of the statutory purpose. On March 25, 1974 the trial judge (not the judge who had heard the Hackensack Meadowlands case), on cross-motions for summary judgment, rendered an oral opinion declaring that N.J.S.A. 13:11-9 and 10 effected an improper discrimination against interstate commerce and were hence unconstitutional. Following the filing of a notice of appeal to the Appellate Division, we again granted direct certification, 67 N.J. 102, 335 A.2d 55 (1974), and the two actions were brought on for argument and disposition before us at the same time.

We thus face an issue of major public importance, namely, whether the regulations and statutes under review, designed to meet a pressing emergency in the life of the State, are of such a nature as to violate the Commerce Clause, Article I, § 8, clause 3, of the United States Constitution.⁵

II

The Court is acutely aware of the solid waste disposal problem which now exists in the State of New Jersey. Very recently we recognized that it had reached "crisis proportions" due to the increasing scarcity of sites for dumping and landfill. Southern Ocean Landfill, Inc. v. Mayor and Council of the Township of Ocean, 64 N.J. 190, 193 (1974). The facts presented in the two cases now before this Court, together with the legislative concern with this problem to which we have alluded above and of which more will be said below, serve to reinforce very strongly our consciousness of this extremely serious situation.

The materials constituting the records on these appeals reveal that since the effective date of the creation of HMDC, July 1, 1968, three surveys have been conducted to determine the volume and origin of the solid waste disposed of in the landfills located within HMD. The first survey, mandated by N.J.S.A. 13:17-10(a), found that in 1968 approximately 30,000 tons of solid waste entered HMD each week, of which about 4,000 tons originated outside of New Jersey. The second survey, conducted in 1971, indicated that the total volume of solid waste disposed of in the District had risen to 42,000 tons per week, 5,000 tons of which originated outside of the State. The latest survey, conducted in 1973, revealed further increases to total weekly deposits of 55,000 tons of solid waste, of which about 10,000 tons came from out of state.⁶

On the basis of the 1973 survey, it was estimated by HMDC that the existing landfill sites within HMD had a useful life of about three years, but that a ban on out-of-state refuse would extend their availability by approximately six months. Since the adoption of the ban on out-of-state dumping, the HMDC revised its estimates of the remaining life of the landfills within the HMD. It was calculated that as of January 1, 1974, sanitary landfills within that area had a total life expectancy of about 38 months if the ban were to be continued, but an availability of only 26 months if the ban were to be lifted. Furthermore, there is little chance of reducing the volume of garbage being dumped in the HMD which originates within the State, for the reason, among others, that the Commission has become obligated by statute, N.J.S.A. 13:17-10, to provide solid waste disposal facilities for over 100 New Jersey municipalities.

State-wide, the picture appears much the same. It was estimated that in 1971 over 40,000 tons of solid waste originating out of state was being buried each week in the 340 sanitary landfills then...