An April 20 ruling from the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals represents a tremendous victory for everyone who has worked for West Virginia's solid waste law. In effect, the court ruled that our solid waste laws do not violate the United States Constitution by interfering with interstate commerce. This means that citizens will have the opportunity for a referendum on the largest landfills, Class A landfills, and that local certificates of site approval, caps on landfill size, and all of the other portions of our solid waste laws are intact.

This is the latest chapter of a saga that started in the late 1980's when mega-dumps were proposed throughout West Virginia. Many proposed to dump as much garbage (or more) as the entire state produced. Hundreds of citizens descended on the legislature asking for protection from these mega-dumps, fearing groundwater contamination, lower property values, increased truck traffic, and the potential influence of organized crime. These years were known as the "garbage wars" and culminated in a comprehensive solid waste bill passed during a special session of the legislature in the fall of 1991.

Court challenges started almost immediately, and in 1993 Valero Terrestrial, a landfill and sewage sludge composting facility in Brooke County filed a suit claiming that almost every portion of the law violated the interstate commerce clause of the U. S. Constitution. In 1997 a Federal Judge, Judge Stamp, ruled in Valero’s favor and found all of the challenged statutes unconstitutional.

This ruling re-activated the garbage warriors, who again went to the legislature for help. During the 1998 legislative session, the legislature corrected the constitutional infirmities and re-enacted the solid waste laws.

Upon passage of the corrected solid waste laws, the attorney general’s office filed a motion asking Judge Stamp to vacate his 1997 order based on the fact that the legislature had cured the constitutional problems. In March of 1999, Judge Stamp vacated all of his 1997 order except for the portions dealing with the referendum, which he still held to be unconstitutional.

It was this March, 1999 order that the Fourth Circuit ruled on. The high court agreed that Judge Stamp correctly vacated his 1997 order, but found that Judge Stamp did not have jurisdiction to rule on the referendum because Valero had not challenged it, nor was it threatened with a referendum. Therefore, the high court vacated the portions of the lower court order that found the referendum unconstitutional.

This is a huge victory, culminating fourteen years of hard work by hundreds of people. In regards to this litigation, however, all would have been lost except for the dedication of Attorney General Darrell "Judge" McGraw and his staff, notably Silas Taylor and Rex Burford. The amount of money and time that went into these cases is staggering. Please take time to call Judge McGraw (304-558-2021 or 304-558-0140 fax) and thank him for this incredible victory.

Another big thank-you goes to attorney Larry Harless, who has consistently been there to defend the solid waste statutes for citizens and solid waste authorities, often for reduced fees or gratis. His expertise on these statutes has been invaluable.

The referendum is not out of the woods yet, however. The Fourth Circuit did not rule on the constitutionality of the referendum, it only said Judge Stamp did not have jurisdiction in the matter. This means that although we can use it, the referendum can still be challenged, and in fact it is. There is a case in federal court challenging the referendum on commercial infectious medical waste facilities that had been on hold until it was seen how the Fourth Circuit would rule on this case. Since no decision was made on the constitutionality of the referendum, the medical waste case will resume moving forward. It will bear watch-ing, but for now, give yourselves a big pat on the back for a job well done!