Feb 14 – CA - San Luis Obispo County, Cities Removed From Bag Lawsuit

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In the latest turn of events on a lawsuit against the San Luis Obispo (SLO) County bag ban, the plastic industry attorney has dropped the SLO County and incorporated cities as defendants in the case.

This is the second change to the lawsuit filed by the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition in late January. The ordinance was passed by the SLO County Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA) on January 11. The original petition included the authority as well as SLO county and its cities as defendants.

The petition also had two causes of action but one cause was dropped shortly after the filing. The remaining cause of action claims that the IWMA, under the California Environmental Quality Act, should have prepared an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) prior to enacting the ordinance. However last July, the California Supreme Court ruled that the City of Manhattan Beach did not need an EIR for its plastic bag ban.

The IWMA plastic bag ban would go into effect at large retail stores throughout the county and its cities this September, with a mandatory 10 cent price requirement on paper bags starting in December.

Read more in an article here.

The City of Atasacedro is meeting this evening to discuss the lawsuit during a closed session. However, public comment is allowed in the open session of the meeting.

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