Dallas Appeals Waste Flow Control Ruling

The city of Dallas has appealed a U.S. District Court’s ruling halting its flow control law.

In late January Judge Reed O’Connor granted the request by the National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) and several private haulers for a preliminary injunction against the law, which Dallas passed in late September to direct all the city’s waste to its McCommas Bluff landfill.

The city filed papers for the appeal Feb. 29.

In granting the injunction, Judge O'Connor said that the flow control law would substantially hurt the disposal business of the city’s franchised haulers with the loss of landfill revenue, and higher transportation costs and tipping fees. He also concluded the city enacted the law to raise revenue.

Based on the evidence, O'Connor said in the opinion the "plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their contract clause claim."

After Dallas passed the law the NSWMA and several other parties filed a suit to block it, saying it is anti-free enterprise and would discourage recycling.