Dive Brief:
- Waste Management has agreed to pay a settlement totaling $1.5 million to Charles City County, VA.
- The two parties came to the agreement after 15 months of disputes during a civil lawsuit to determine the validity of allegations regarding the waste firm’s failure to pay host fees.
- The county claimed that Waste Management avoided paying host fees by delivering waste to an Amelia County site, where the fee was lower, instead of the municipality’s Roxbury landfill.
Dive Insight:
Waste Management denied the claims and wanted to battle it out in court. The case was eventually transferred out of the county at the request of the waste firm, who made a claim that the jury in Charles City would be prejudiced by local media coverage. The trial was moved to New Kent, VA.
Before the case's settlement, the county continued to lose revenue, forcing $900,000 in cuts. Of those total cuts in local funding, the county designated $436,000 to be removed from the school system, leading to a public outcry. After Tuesday's announcement of the settlement, local administrators expressed satisfaction with the deal.
