The Murray County Superior Court granted R&J Murray LLC “R&J” a writ of mandamus compelling Murray County the “County” to verify to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division “EPD” that R&J’s proposed landfill was consistent with the County’s Solid Waste Management Plan “SWMP”. The County appeals. Because the County did not abuse its discretion by considering factors other than land use and environmental factors to determine that the proposed landfill was inconsistent with its SWMP, the trial court improperly granted summary judgment and a writ of mandamus to R&J. Accordingly, we reverse and remand. In 2002, R&J first proposed building a Construction and Demolition “C&D” landfill on 398 acres it owned in Murray County. Under OCGA § 12-8-24 g, before R&J could obtain a permit to build and operate a landfill from the EPD, it first had to obtain written verification from the County that its proposed landfill did not violate any zoning or land use ordinances and was consistent with the County’s SWMP.1 The County responded to R&J’s initial proposal, by letter, stating that the proposed C&D landfill, which would be restricted to the disposal of construction and demolition waste, was consistent with its zoning ordinances and its SWMP. R&J amended its request multiple times, however, and eventually asked the County to verify that an unrestricted Municipal Solid Waste “MSW” landfill was also consistent with the County’s SWMP.
The County refused to verify that the proposed MSW landfill was consistent with its SWMP, claiming that an unrestricted MSW landfill would cause more environmental harm than the originally proposed C&D landfill, and that the proposed landfill, owing to economic factors as well as its geographic proximity to the County’s existing landfill, would render the County unable to continue operating its existing landfill. Due to land and geological limitations, the County’s SWMP states that the County will rely exclusively on its existing MSW landfill until at least 2030. The County found that the proposed landfill would interfere with the expansion of the existing landfill necessary to achieve that goal, due to statutory restrictions on landfill density.2 In addition, the County concluded that the proposed landfill would render the County financially unable to continue operating its existing landfill, contrary to the SWMP, and that by increasing the waste stream into the County, the County would be unable to meet its waste reduction goals.3 The County thus concluded that the proposed MSW landfill was inconsistent with its SWMP, and it refused to issue the requested verification to the EPD. R&J then filed suit in the Superior Court, seeking a writ of mandamus to compel the County to issue the required verification to the EPD.
