Alameda Cnty. Waste Mgmt. Auth. v. Waste Connections United States, Inc.

67 Cal.App.5th 1162

283 Cal.Rptr.3d 171

ALAMEDA COUNTY WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.WASTE CONNECTIONS US, INC., et al., Defendants and Appellants.

A158323

Court of Appeal, First District, Division 2, California.

Filed August 18, 2021

As Modified September 8, 2021

Beveridge & Diamond, Eric L. Klein, Boston, MA, Gary J. Smith, San Francisco, James B. Slaughter, Washington, DC, for Defendants and Appellants.

Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, Ellison Folk, Joseph D. Petta, San Francisco, and Andrew P. Miller, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Cole Huber, Derek P. Cole, Roseville, as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Respondent.

STEWART, J.

In 2016, Alameda County Waste Management Authority, a regional government entity responsible for managing disposal, recycling and reuse of waste generated in Alameda County (the Authority), sought records from three out-of-county landfills that disposed of waste originating in Alameda County. The Integrated Waste Management Act (the Act), Public Resources Code sections 40000 -49260, permits local government entities to inspect and copy specified records kept by landfills concerning waste received at such landfills originating in the government's geographic jurisdiction. The legislation specifies two purposes for which local governments may conduct such inspections: "for the purposes of" verifying reports made by the landfills on "disposal tonnages by jurisdiction of origin" and "as necessary to enforce the collection of local fees." ( Pub. Resources Code, § 41821.5, subds. (a), (g)(2).¹ ) The Authority repeatedly sought to inspect records for the second purpose.

The landfills and their corporate owner, Waste Connections US, Inc. (collectively Waste Connections), refused to permit the inspections, contending the statute did not apply because the Authority had not shown inspection of the records was "necessary" to enforce its fee ordinance. The Authority responded that section 41821.5, subdivision (g)(2) does not require it to justify to Waste Connections why the records are required for collection of local fees. Nonetheless, it attached a copy of its fee ordinance and explained that the fee depends on where tonnage originated, the type and amount of waste, and the party responsible for transporting the waste to the landfill, facts that are documented in landfill weight tags of the kind the statute allows government entities to inspect.

The Authority sued Waste Connections and its landfills under the Act, invoking a provision permitting it to petition the superior court for injunctive or declaratory relief to enforce its inspection authority. ( § 41821.5, subd. (g)(3).) After Waste Connections’ constitutional challenges to the inspection statute were rejected by the court, the Authority filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings, which the superior court granted. The superior court rejected Waste Connections’ interpretation of section 41821.5, subdivision (g)(2) as requiring local governments to prove as a factual matter that they have a need for the records before a court may enforce their inspection authority. It therefore granted the Authority's motion and compelled Waste Connections to allow the inspection.

On appeal, Waste Connections argues the superior court erred in granting judgment on the pleadings, contending it was entitled to contest the Authority's need for the records as a factual matter. It acknowledges that if we do not interpret the statute to condition inspection rights on a factual showing of necessity, there are no other disputed facts that would preclude judgment on the pleadings.

We review issues of statutory interpretation de novo. Considering the words of section 41821.5, the Act of which the section is a part, the purposes of the Act, and the legislative history of the amendment, we conclude the "as necessary" language of the inspection provision requires neither a factual showing nor a factual determination. We therefore disagree with Waste Connections’ contention that a "factual" issue precluded resolution of the case on the Authority's motion for judgment on the pleadings. The defenses pled by Waste Connections, all of which are predicated on its interpretation of the Act, fail as a matter of law. We therefore affirm the judgment.

BACKGROUND

The Authority is a public agency formed in 1976 by a Joint Exercise of Powers Agreement among the County of Alameda, the 14 cities in that county and two sanitary districts that provide refuse and recycling collection services there. The Authority is responsible for waste management planning in Alameda County and facilitates implementation of the statewide Disposal Reporting System for the County.² It provides the planning and technical assistance necessary for ensuring that Alameda County and its cities meet the state's mandates concerning the reduction of solid waste disposed of in California landfills.

The Act allows, but does not require, local governments to "impose fees in amounts sufficient to pay the costs of preparing, adopting, and implementing a countywide integrated waste management plan prepared" pursuant to the Act. (§ 41901.) In 2009, pursuant to the authority granted in the Act (ibid. ), the Authority adopted an ordinance imposing tonnage-based fees for waste generation in Alameda County. The fees are imposed on all such waste, whether disposed of in or outside of the county. The Authority found the fees were necessary to fund the costs of preparing and implementing the Alameda County waste management plan. The ordinance requires landfill operators or haulers to collect and remit the fee for all waste generated in Alameda County that they deposit in their landfills or transport to a landfill or other solid waste facility.

Waste Connections, a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Texas, is an integrated solid waste services company that provides solid waste-related services across the United States. Three of its wholly owned subsidiaries are landfills operated in California in counties other than Alameda County.

The Authority and Waste Connections have long disputed whether Waste Connections landfills are obligated to allow the Authority to conduct "weight tag audits" or, stated otherwise, to provide unredacted weight tickets showing the haulers who delivered the material to its landfills. In 2014, after the Authority requested unredacted weight tags for Alameda County-generated waste deposited at Waste Connections’ California landfills, the state Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (Cal Recycle)³ informed Waste Connections that, pursuant to CalRecycle's regulations, Waste Connections was required to provide the records the Authority had requested. At the time, title 14 of the California Code of Regulations, section 18810.4 provided that landfill operators "shall prepare disposal reporting records and shall ... [a]llow representatives of involved jurisdictions ... to inspect the records during normal business hours in a single location within California." CalRecycle rejected Waste Connections’ argument that California's trade secrets statute bars review of information by governmental agencies for a governmental purpose, and explained that the purpose for which the Authority was entitled to review the information was "verifying disposal reporting." In the prior year, however, CalRecycle had informed both the Authority and Waste Connections that its regulations did not require inspection of records "for the purpose of enforcing local ordinances" such as the Authority's local fee ordinance.

The following year, the Legislature amended the Act to add express inspection and copying rights for state and local governments, both for purposes of verifying tonnages and to enforce fee ordinances. (See Stats. 2015, ch. 746, § 1 (Assem. Bill No. 901); § 41821.5.) After the amendment took effect in 2016, the Authority again demanded inspection and copying of weight tickets at Waste Connections’ California landfills receiving waste originating in Alameda County. Waste Connections refused to make the requested records available and instead filed suit against the Authority in Kings County seeking to enjoin the Authority from seeking the records. After losing a battle over venue, Waste Connections eventually dismissed the case without prejudice in January 2018.

In June 2017 and February 2018, the Authority again requested that Waste Connections allow inspection and photocopying of the records pursuant to section 41821.5, subdivision (g). Waste Connections again refused to permit inspection or photocopying of the records. The Authority then filed this action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief under section 41821.5, subdivision (g)(3) to enforce its asserted right to inspect the weight tags it had been requesting from July 2015 through December 31, 2017.

Waste Connections filed an answer and a cross-complaint, challenging the amendment under various provisions of the state and federal constitutions.⁴ After briefing and a hearing, the court sustained the Authority's demurrer to the cross-complaint.

In its answer to the Authority's complaint (as well as its own cross-complaint), Waste Connections admitted the basic facts relevant to the parties’ dispute. It admitted that it was in the solid waste business and provided solid waste disposal, that it operated the three California landfill companies identified in the complaint, and that these landfills, from which the Authority sought records, received waste from Alameda County. It admitted that in 2016, shortly after Assembly Bill No. 901 took effect and pursuant to that section 41821.5, subdivision (g)(2), the Authority wrote to Waste Connections demanding inspection and copying of all weight tickets evidencing waste originating in Alameda County after July 1, 2015, that had been deposited in Waste Connections’ California landfills. It admitted that it "safeguarded the secrecy" of the identity of its customers (i.e.,...