Beavers v. County of Walker
| Citation | 645 So.2d 1365 |
| Parties | Ralph BEAVERS, et al. v. COUNTY OF WALKER, Alabama, et al. 1921871. |
| Decision Date | 24 June 1994 |
| Court | Supreme Court of Alabama |
Mark B. Craig of Brown, Willman & Craig, Decatur, for appellants.
Thomas Nicholson of Maddox, MacLaurin, Nicholson & Thornley, Jasper, for appellees Walker County, Walker County Comm'n, John Ed Roberts, Horace Ivey, Clyde Clark, Neal Akins, Andy Naramore, and the Walker County Solid Waste Disposal Authority.
J. Hunter Phillips, E. Clayton Lowe, Jr. and Rik S. Tozzi of Burr & Forman, Birmingham, for appellee Browning-Ferris, Industries of Alabama, Inc. (J. Hunter Phillips, Mark M. Lawson and D.W. Collier, on application for rehearing).
James H. Evans, Atty. Gen., R. Craig Kneisel, Asst. Atty. Gen., Mort P. Ames, Deputy Atty. Gen., and Vivian D. Vines, Deputy Atty. Gen., for amicus curiae State of Alabama (in support of appellants). .
Robert D. Thorington and Wendell Cauley of Thorington and Gregory, Montgomery, for amicus curiae Southeast Alabama Solid Waste Disposal Authority (on application for rehearing).
James L. Richey of Donovan, Vann and Richey, Birmingham, for amicus curiae East Central Alabama Solid Waste Disposal Authority and Blount County Solid Waste Disposal Authority (on application for rehearing).
The plaintiffs, Ralph Beavers and nine other residents of Walker County, appeal from a judgment entered by the Walker Circuit Court in favor of the defendants, the County of Walker (the "County"), the Walker County Commission (the "Commission"), the Walker County Solid Waste Disposal Authority (the "Authority"), and Browning-Ferris Industries of Alabama, Inc. ("BFI"). The plaintiffs had sought a declaratory judgment and preliminary and permanent injunctions to enjoin the defendants from constructing a sanitary solid waste landfill on 680 acres in eastern Walker County, near Dora, adjacent to the unincorporated Bryan community. For the reasons expressed below, we reverse the trial court's judgment in favor of the defendants.
The enactment of the Solid Waste Management Plan Act, Ala.Code 1975, § 22-27-40 et seq., in 1989 and the adoption of new regulations by the federal Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") regarding solid waste landfills created a dilemma for Walker County and its governing body, the Commission. The Solid Waste Management Plan Act, an amendment to the Solid Wastes Disposal Act, 1 required that by December 1990 each county develop for the management of solid waste generated within its boundaries a written plan that would meet the regulatory requirements of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act ("RCRA"). 2 Ala.Code 1975, § 22-27-47. Further, the County's only sanitary solid waste landfill had little remaining capacity, did not meet the new EPA regulations for solid waste landfills ("Subtitle D requirements"), 3 and, thus, could no longer accept waste once those regulations went into effect on October 9, 1993.
Pursuant to the Solid Waste Disposal Authorities Act, Ala.Code 1975, § 11-89A-1 et seq., the Commission incorporated the Walker County Solid Waste Disposal Authority on August 23, 1990, and the commissioners appointed themselves directors of the Authority on September 17, 1990. The Authority was organized as a public corporation with powers including, but not limited to, the ability to issue and sell bonds in order to raise the funds necessary to lease, purchase, or construct a new solid waste landfill in Walker County, or to enter into contracts for disposal of Walker County's waste. § 11-89A-8. At about the same time the Commission obtained the services of an engineering consulting firm to assist with the development of its solid waste management plan.
The consulting firm estimated that it would cost the County approximately $2.5 to $3 million to construct a landfill meeting Subtitle D design requirements, approximately $750,000 per year to operate the landfill, and greater than $1 million more for post-closure monitoring requirements. Based on these numbers, the Commission estimated a "tipping fee" of approximately $25 per ton of solid waste deposited at the proposed landfill, not including the costs of residential collection. The Commission considered the cost to the County to operate its own Subtitle D landfill to be too great for that option to be feasible, given the fact that a majority of the County's residents already refused to use the waste disposal service the County was then operating, for which only a small fee was charged.
BFI approached the Commission with a proposal to construct a privately owned and operated landfill in the County that would be allowed to accept sanitary solid waste from both Walker County and nearby counties; BFI proposed that, in return, the County would receive free waste disposal for up to 20 years. The Commission was receptive to the proposal because it involved no expenditure by the County, and preliminary negotiations between BFI and the Commission began in August 1990.
In September 1990, an outline of a landfill agreement was developed between BFI and the Commission and the idea of a privately owned landfill was included in the County's proposed solid waste management plan. The plan stated that the Commission had "secured a preliminary agreement with a private firm" for that firm to construct a sanitary solid waste landfill in eastern Walker County near the Burnwell community. The plan did not provide the name of the private company--BFI; nor is the named Burnwell site the same as the Bryan site finally chosen by BFI, although they are both located in the same part of the County.
The Commission set a meeting with the mayors of Walker County's municipalities for September 17 to discuss the proposed plan. Public notice of the meeting was published on September 6 in the Daily Mountain Eagle, a newspaper of general circulation in the County. All of the mayors who attended agreed to participate in the County's proposed plan, rather than prepare individual plans for their municipalities. The meeting was also attended by members of the general public, including one of the plaintiffs in this action.
The next step for the Commission in formulating a solid waste management plan was meeting the statutory public notice and comment requirements of the Solid Waste Management Plan Act.
§ 22-27-47(f). The Commission published notice of an October 15, 1990, hearing on the proposed plan on September 12, in the Daily Mountain Eagle. The notice stated that a public hearing was to be held on the County's proposed solid waste management plan and provided the location where copies of the plan could be reviewed and also provided the name of a contact person. The notice did not provide any specific information regarding BFI's proposal to construct a privately owned regional sanitary solid waste landfill. However, the record shows that several of the plaintiffs were present at the October 15 hearing and commented on the plan and on BFI's proposal, which was discussed at the hearing.
On October 19, 1990, the Authority and BFI signed an "Agreement for Development and Use of Sanitary Landfill." According to the agreement, the landfill was to be located adjacent to the Bryan community, rather than the Burnwell community as the proposed plan has indicated. The BFI landfill was to receive sanitary waste from both Walker County and eight nearby Alabama counties. 4 It would not receive hazardous waste, nor would it receive out-of-state waste of any kind. The Authority would be paid a "host fee" of $1 per ton of waste the landfill received from outside the County. The agreement between BFI and the Authority was also signed by the Commission, for the purpose of acknowledging its agreement to a limited number of sections of the document.
However, § 22-27-48(a), part of the Solid Waste Management Plan Act, requires that "[a]ny determination by the local governing body [such as the Commission on a] proposal to contract for any services described in the solid waste management plan, shall be made in a public meeting only after public notice of such application or proposal and an opportunity for public comment is provided." That section further states:
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