The Assembly sent to the governor today a San Francisco lawmaker's bill meant to ensure that her city's trash can continue to be hauled to Solano County without restriction in years to come.
The measure by Democratic Assemblywoman Fiona Ma would prohibit voters in a city or county from restricting or limiting the importation of solid waste into a privately owned landfill.
Assembly Bill 845 passed the lower house by a vote of 46-15.
Ma's proposal stems from a fight over Measure E, a 1984 voter-approved Solano County initiative to limit the amount of waste imported into Solano County to a maximum of 95,000 tons per year, curtailing what it could accept from San Francisco.
In 1992, Solano County announced that it would not enforce Measure E after the Legislative Counsel of California and the county's own counsel opined that it violates the U.S. Constitution by discriminating against interstate commerce.
Recent plans to expand the Potrero Hills Landfill in Solano County sparked a new lawsuit to enforce Measure E, prompting a judge to rewrite the initiative to avoid the constitutional question by narrowing its focus to trash imported from other California counties.
The judge's ruling has been appealed.
Though Ma's AB 845 stemmed from the Solano County Measure E fight, which threatens to affect her district, the bill would bar voters in any city or county from enacting similar bans on trash hauled to private landfills.
Opponents of AB 845 characterized it as an attack on local control.
Supporters countered that limits should be set on the ability of city and county voters, at the ballot box, to keep away from their community various things that are not illegal in California but that they simply don't like.
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