Court Opinion

ID: 9544489
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:56:10.670899+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:13:05.859468
License: Public Domain

LARSEN, Justice,
dissenting.
In my opinion, the warrantless inspection provisions of the Solid Waste Management Act (the “Act”), section 608, 35 P.S. § 6018.608 (Supp.1985), are clearly valid under the “Colonnade-Biswell exception”1 to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment, as that exception was *211explained by the United States Supreme Court in Donovan v. Dewey, 452 U.S. 594, 601, 101 S.Ct. 2534, 2539, 69 L.Ed.2d 262 (1981). Accordingly, I dissent.
In Donovan v. Dewey, the United States Supreme Court stated:
[U]nlike searches of private homes, which generally must be conducted pursuant to a warrant in order to be reasonable under the Fourth Amendment, legislative schemes authorizing warrantless administrative searches of commercial property do not necessarily violate the Fourth Amendment. ...
The greater latitude to conduct warrantless inspections of commercial property reflects the fact that the expectation of privacy that the owner of commercial property enjoys in such property differs significantly from the sanctity accorded an individual’s home, and that this privacy interest may, in certain circumstances, be adequately protected by regulatory schemes authorizing warrantless inspections ____
The interest of the owner of commercial property is not one in being free from any inspections. Congress has broad authority to regulate commercial enterprises engaged in or affecting interstate commerce, and an inspection program may in some cases be a necessary component of federal regulation.
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These decisions make clear that a warrant may not be constitutionally required when Congress has reasonably determined that warrantless searches are necessary to further a regulatory scheme and the federal regulatory presence is sufficiently comprehensive and defined that the owner of commercial property cannot help but be aware that his property will be subject to periodic inspections undertaken for specific purposes.
452 U.S. at 598-99, 601, 101 S.Ct. at 2538-39 (citations omitted; emphasis added).
The majority seems to hold that the warrantless inspections authorized by the Act are almost valid under the *212balancing test enunciated by Dewey, and would be valid if the authorization were limited to warrantless inspection of “hazardous waste” facilities and operations as opposed to “ordinary solid waste” facilities and operations. The majority concludes that three of Dewey’s four “requirements” for valid warrantless inspections are satisfied by the Act,2 but that the fourth is not. Majority op. at 201, n. 8. The fourth requirement, that there be “reasonable legislative or administrative standards” governing the inspection, is not met, according to the majority, where “ordinary solid waste” is involved because:
ordinary solid waste does not pose the same danger to public health as hazardous waste. Since the public interest is less vitally affected and the industry itself has fewer of the special characteristics that would put an operator on notice of random regulatory searches, we believe that warrantless searches for ordinary solid waste cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny absent proper adoption by the Department of a flexible inspection schedule or a reasonable definition of the circumstances under which such searches will be conducted.
Majority op. at 204.
The majority’s attempt to distinguish this case from “Colonnade-Biswell exception” cases because this case involves “ordinary solid waste” is unpersuasive, for two reasons.
First, the majority's factual assumption is wrong — we do not know what kind of waste the Department of Environmental Resources’ inspectors would have found on April 22, 1982, because the inspectors were not able to take samples that day after they were ordered off the property by *213appellee. The DER was informed that a sludgey solid waste was being dumped on appellee’s property, where a few months before some oily waste had been deposited. The inspectors had no way of knowing, therefore, whether the waste was “hazardous” or “non-hazardous,” “residual,” “agricultural,” or “municipal” as those terms are defined in the Act. 35 P.S. § 6018.103. That was one of the critical reasons why inspection was so important. Moreover, the definitions of the various recognized types of waste are not mutually exclusive. “Hazardous waste” includes “sludge from an industrial or other waste water treatment plant” and “solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous material resulting from municipal, commerical, industrial, institutional, mining or agricultural operations,” and “solid waste” includes “municipal, residual or hazardous wastes” of “solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous materials.” Id. The “affidavit for issuance of process” accompanying the criminal complaint in this matter states that the DER had received information that “material (presumably sewage sludge)” had been dumped on appellee’s property. “Sewage sludge” is certainly “solid waste” within the definition of that term, and could also be “hazardous waste” if, “because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics may: (1) cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality ...; or (2) pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment. ...” 35 P.S. § 6018.103. Because of appellee’s actions in refusing to allow DER inspectors to take samples on April 22, 1982, there is no way of knowing whether “sewage sludge” had in fact been dumped and, if so, whether it was “hazardous” or, as the majority phrases it, “ordinary solid waste.”
The second flaw in the majority’s distinction is that, even if there had only been non-hazardous, “ordinary solid waste” involved in this case, the legislature has determined that the risk to the public health, safety and welfare, and to the environment, posed by “improper and inadequate solid waste practices,” both hazardous and non-hazardous, necessitates the warrantless inspection procedures authorized by *214the Act. Thus, the majority errs in stating: “While we recognize an important public interest in controlling nonhazardous waste, it does not rise to the same level of concern as hazardous waste.” Majority op. at 204. It is not for this Court to determine the “level of concern” for the problems and risks posed by “non-hazardous” waste, for the appropriate level of concern has been established by the legislature.
There is a strong and fundamental presumption that the legislature has acted within constitutional bounds. Commonwealth v. Zettlemoyer, 500 Pa. 16, 58-60, 454 A.2d 937, 959 (1983), cert. denied 461 U.S. 970, 103 S.Ct. 2444, 77 L.Ed.2d 1327 (1983); American Trucking Associations, Inc. v. Scheiner, 510 Pa. 430, 452, 509 A.2d 838, 849 (1986); Commonwealth v. Mikulan, 504 Pa. 244, 247, 470 A.2d 1339, 1340 (1983). Consequently, one challenging the constitutionality of a legislative enactment bears the heavy burden of demonstrating that it clearly, plainly and palpably violates some specific mandate or prohibition of the constitution. Id. Snider v. Thornburgh, 496 Pa. 159, 166, 436 A.2d 593, 596 (1981).
In considering the constitutionality of the Solid Waste Management Act, we must also bear in mind that it was enacted to implement the will of the people as expressed in Article I, section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which provides:
Natural resources and the public estate The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.
Adopted May 18, 1971.
See section 102(10) of the Act, 35 P.S. § 6018.102(10) (“it is the purpose of this act to ... implement Article I, section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. ... ”).
*215Viewed in that light, it is apparent that the legislature is very concerned about the problems and risks posed by both hazardous and non-hazardous (“ordinary”) waste disposal and has subjected the disposal of all forms of solid waste to heavy regulation. The strong presumption of constitutionality that accompanies environmental legislation in this Commonwealth requires that we give great deference to the General Assembly’s assessment of the dangers and risks posed by “improper and inadequate solid waste practices” regarding all forms of solid waste. Section 102 of the Act states:
The Legislature hereby determines, declares and finds that, since improper and inadequate solid waste practices create public health hazards, environmental pollution, and economic loss, and cause irreparable harm to the public health, safety and welfare, it is the purpose of this act to:
(1) establish and maintain a cooperative State and local program of planning and technical and financial assistance for comprehensive solid waste management;
(2) encourage the development of resource recovery as a means of managing solid waste, conserving resources, and supplying energy;
(3) require permits for the operation of municipal and residual waste processing and disposal systems, licenses for the transportation of hazardous waste and permits for hazardous waste storage, treatment, and disposal;
(4) protect the public health, safety and welfare from the short and long term dangers of transportation, processing, treatment, storage, and disposal of all wastes;
(5) provide a flexible and effective means to implement and enforce the provisions of this act____
35 P.S. § 6018.102 (emphasis added).
While hazardous waste is subject to perhaps more stringent regulation, 35 P.S. §§ 6018.401-6018.405 (Article IV), so-called “ordinary solid waste” is subject to extensive and pervasive regulation as well. 35 P.S. §§ 6018.201-6018.203 (Article II. Municipal Waste) and §§ 6018.301-6018.303 (Article III. Residual Waste). Thus, as for “non-hazard*216ous” or “ordinary” waste just as with “hazardous” waste, the legislature has determined that:
The risks these substances pose to the public, coupled with the commercial operator’s knowledge of those risks, justify warrantless searches of sites where they are kept. The nature of the business and its narrow definition justify the search as indicated when Dewey is compared to [Marshall v. Barlow’s, Inc., 436 U.S. 307 [98 S.Ct. 1816, 56 L.Ed.2d 305] (1978)]. In short, such searches are a reasonable means of ameliorating the great risk these materials pose to the general public.
Majority 204 (in reference to risks of hazardous waste only).
As this Court recently stated in Commonwealth v. Parker White Metal Co., 512 Pa. 74, 515 A.2d 1358 (1986):
[The] presumption [of constitutionality] is further strengthened in this case by the explicit purpose of the Act to implement Article I, section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, a remarkable document expressing our citizens’ entitlement and “right to clean air, pure water, and — to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.” The courts of this Commonwealth, as part of a co-equal branch of government, serve as “trustees” of “Pennsylvania’s public natural resources,” no less than do the executive and legislative branches of government____ As one of the trustees of the public estate and this Commonwealth’s natural resources, we share the duty and obligation to protect and foster the environmental well-being of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Failure to act with vigilance “so as best to achieve and effectuate the goals and purposes” of the Solid Waste Management Act would be detrimental to the public health, safety and welfare, and would be a breach of the public trust.
For the foregoing reasons, I would uphold the validity of section 608 of the Act and its authorization of warrantless inspections of appellee’s property in this case.
McDERMOTT and PAPADAKOS, JJ., join this dissenting opinion.

. The majority concludes that the following Dewey requirements are satisfied by the Act:
first, whether the business operator is on notice that he is engaged in activity which may subject him to warrantless searches; second, whether the regulation of the industry is pervasive and regular, considering the history of the regulatory scheme as a factor in this determination; third, whether there is a strong governmental interest in the search____
Majority op. at 201.