The James River Association can proceed with its lawsuit challenging
Virginia's trash-barge rules because the environmental group has substantial
interests at stake, a judge has ruled.
Richmond Circuit Court Judge Randall G. Johnson noted that the group owns
six acres along the James River in Prince George County, along with boats, a
canoe and other equipment used to conduct educational programs.
The group's connection to the James - and thus to the barge rules - gives
the group "standing," or the right to challenge those rules, Johnson said.
The group filed suit Sept. 22, saying the rules should be thrown out
because
the public was not told of a barge-rule deal between the state and a
trash-hauling company.
"We're happy that we'll have our day in court and get a chance to be
heard,"
said Patti Jackson, the group's director. "We feel like, unfortunately, we
weren't heard during the regulatory process."
Carrie Cantrell, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said:
"This ruling is not a conclu- sion of the case. It's just a baby-step
forward."
The two sides will probably make oral arguments before Johnson in late
summer or early fall, said Deborah M. Murray, a lawyer with the Southern
Environmental Law Center, which represents the river group.
In a 75-minute hearing Jan. 7, John K. Byrum Jr., an assistant attorney
general, argued that the group's connection to the case was "too remote" and
not the "direct interest" the law requires to allow a suit.
Judge Johnson seemed skeptical. Referring to the group's programs, he asked,
"What is tenuous about all that?"
Johnson issued his ruling Tuesday; it was made public yesterday.
Waste Management Inc. is planning to barge trash up the James River to
Charles City County. The suit challenges rules that would regulate that
barging.
The state Waste Management Board, a citizen panel, adopted the rules July
25. The board set a $1-a-ton fee for barging trash and established a method
for testing the barges' trash containers. Environmentalists had wanted a
higher fee and tougher test.
Before the vote, the suit says, Virginia officials did not disclose details
of a December 2002 deal between state officials and Waste Management.
The deal was a confidential agreement to settle a lawsuit the company had
brought. In the deal, the company agreed to pay the $1 fee, and state
officials agreed to push for the container test environmentalists opposed.
About 2,500 people weighed in during a comment period a few months later.
Most wanted a tougher test and a fee of $5 to $10 a ton.
"Without notice of the settlement, the public-comment period required by
[state law] was a sham," the suit says.
The suit also claims the new rules violate a state law requiring the trash
containers to be watertight.
State officials say the rules are the toughest in the nation and were
adopted legally.
The deal was approved by officials in the administration of Gov. Mark R.
Warner and the office of Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore.
Though the agreement was kept secret, its details emerged over several
months starting last winter, state officials say.
Terms of the deal were fully disclosed Aug. 10 in The Times-Dispatch.
Environmentalists were enraged, and the suit soon followed.
The James River Association is a 28-year-old nonprofit group with about
2,300 members. Its office is in Mechanicsville.