Opinion ID: 748783
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Flow Control Provisions

Text: 11 Plaintiff argues that the district court erred in ruling that defendant's flow control provisions do not violate the Commerce Clause. The court held that the provisions are nondiscriminatory, with incidental effects on interstate commerce, and that the burden they impose is not clearly excessive in relation to their putative local benefits. It distinguished this case from Carbone on the grounds that the provisions at issue here do not totally exclude disposal of waste outside of Metro, or create or result in a monopoly for NTTC. Rather, the court reasoned, plaintiff can still dispose of non-residential waste at facilities other than NTTC that are located outside of Metro or even outside of Tennessee. 12 Before the court concluded that defendant's flow control provisions do not discriminate against interstate commerce, it proceeded as if they do discriminate. In considering whether defendant had any other means of advancing a legitimate local interest, the court again distinguished these provisions from those at issue in Carbone, on the ground that they do not just generate revenues, which would not be a legitimate local interest justifying such discrimination. 511 U.S. at 393, 114 S.Ct. at 1683-84. They also implicate[ ] significant public environmental interests, such as ensuring that a proportion of solid waste collected within Metro's boundaries is used as fuel, and enabling Metro to comply with Tennessee's Solid Waste Management Act of 1991, Tenn.Code Ann. §§ 68-211-801-874, which requires municipalities to reduce by twenty-five percent the volume of solid waste disposed of in landfills and incinerators in Tennessee. 13 In Carbone, the Supreme Court stated that the flow control ordinance at issue there hoard[ed] solid waste, and the demand to get rid of it, for the benefit of the preferred processing facility. 511 U.S. at 392, 114 S.Ct. at 1683. The provisions at issue in this case do the same, even though they do not require that all waste be sent to NTTC. They require that all residential waste be sent to NTTC, thereby preventing plaintiff from disposing of such waste at a cheaper facility, and threatening the well-being of plaintiff's own dump sites. In Wyoming v. Oklahoma, 502 U.S. 437, 112 S.Ct. 789, 117 L.Ed.2d 1 (1992), the Supreme Court observed that [t]he volume of commerce affected measures only the extent of the discrimination; it is of no relevance to the determination whether a State has discriminated against interstate commerce. Id. at 455, 112 S.Ct. at 801. As we read Wyoming, plaintiff's ability to send some waste to facilities other than NTTC goes to the extent of the discrimination, not whether there was discrimination in the first place. 14 Having determined that defendant's flow control provisions do in fact discriminate against interstate commerce, we must now decide whether the municipality [has] demonstrate[d], under rigorous scrutiny, that it has no other means to advance a legitimate local interest. Carbone, 511 U.S. at 392, 114 S.Ct. at 1683. Although defendant may have cited two legitimate local interests, there are other means of advancing such interests, like charging competitive tipping fees for waste disposed of at NTTC. Moreover, Metro concedes that it could secure a flow of waste to NTTC by increasing its collections either directly or by contract, but this could not be done without legislation and some further time for preparation. Because defendant's flow control provisions are facially discriminatory, and because there are other means of advancing the legitimate local interests cited, these provisions cannot satisfy the rigorous scrutiny to which such laws are subjected under the Commerce Clause. We hold, therefore, that the district court erred in refusing to enjoin their enforcement.