California’s war on essential services must end

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OPINION — Picture this: A man in a cowboy hat appears outside a local market recruiting residents to sue the nearby landfill. The episode sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it is far from it.

The Los Angeles Times has reported allegations of aggressive and potentially illegal tactics by lawyers soliciting clients for lawsuits over an ongoing incident at the Chiquita Canyon landfill just north of Los Angeles. Some residents in the nearby town of Val Verde thought they had signed petitions, only to learn that lawsuits had been filed in their names. Others claimed recruiters offered cash, gift cards or even a cellphone while seeking names and signatures. California prohibits the kind of third-party client solicitation described, and the firm denied that it occurred. 

Still, the allegations raise a larger question: What happens when the legal battle surrounding critical infrastructure grows so large that even the integrity of the process is in dispute?

To be clear, the concerns of the people living near Chiquita Canyon deserve serious attention. Residents have endured odors from an ongoing underground rare, elevated temperature event. But the landfill stopped accepting waste in January 2025, and its operator has continued mitigation work under federal and state oversight and provided a $25 million community relief fund. 

Yet this has not stopped trial attorneys from descending upon the community in search of a big payday — an indication of the broader legal environment in the state that is making life more expensive for everyday Californians.

The fact remains that people across Los Angeles County still need trash service. After Chiquita closed to new waste, the hauler serving parts of the Santa Clarita Valley had to send it to another facility. This nearly tripled its replacement disposal fee and added an estimated 52,000 truck miles annually. The result is more transportation emissions and higher household costs — an uncomfortable outcome for policies pursued in the name of environmental protection.

As a former Placer County supervisor and Colfax city manager, I have seen firsthand the challenges that come with maintaining affordable and dependable municipal services for residents. I have also seen the strain that can be placed on emergency responses that fall under so many different state regulators that provide conflicting demands. 

Placer County’s Western Regional Sanitary Landfill and the neighboring Kiefer Landfill in Sacramento County were part of the infrastructure that made everyday life possible when I served. Lawsuits that could jeopardize the continued operation of such essential providers concern me, as keeping those services affordable requires protecting the capacity and partnerships that communities already depend on.

When a provider is driven out by excessive litigation threats or overregulation, officials cannot assume another company will step forward. Alternatives may be farther away, more costly or years from being ready. Activists who have helped institute many of these roadblocks too often celebrate stopping a project or closing a facility without taking responsibility for what must replace it. Local officials have no such luxury. They still have to meet resident needs, even when the available options have narrowed.

That challenge extends beyond just collecting garbage. In Huntington Beach, for example, an environmental coalition recently helped defeat a proposed desalination plant that was designed to produce 50 million gallons of drinking water daily. This major loss will exacerbate ongoing water management issues and underscores how California’s failures in advancing cannot make drought resilience. 

Looking beyond municipal services, Californians have been confronted with higher fuel prices as the state adopts policies that make in-state production more expensive. Valero identified California’s regulatory uncertainty as a reason for reassessing its operations, and closed its Benicia refinery in April. The state has responded by increasing fuel imports, but this brings additional transportation costs and leaves motorists more exposed to supply disruptions and price spikes. The consequences also fall back on local governments, with Benicia projecting approximately $10.7 million in annual revenue losses associated with the closure, affecting both its general fund and water system. 

Chiquita Canyon should prompt California’s leaders to finally confront the costs of our broken policies and legal system. Regulatory and tort reform should give providers predictable standards and timely decisions, while ensuring that civil litigation resolves legitimate claims fairly and that abusive legal tactics carry consequences. Other states provide a playbook for the path forward. 

Virginia’s Business Ready Expedited Permitting Program, for example, helps important infrastructure projects navigate conflicting requirements by empowering a lead agency to coordinate reviews and expedites the process by requiring decisions on complete permit applications within 180 days. Louisiana, meanwhile, recently passed legislation that entitles defendants in certain environmental lawsuits to recover reasonable attorney fees should they not be found legally responsible for the alleged damages at trial. Passing such a law with an expanded scope here in California and combining it with stronger enforcement of the unlawful-solicitation laws already on the books in the state would help significantly improve the legal climate in the Golden State.

Companies considering an investment here need confidence that California offers a reasonable opportunity to build, operate and serve its residents. An environmental and legal system that loses sight of those obligations is failing the very public it claims to protect.

Bruce Kranz is a former Placer County Supervisor and City Manager of Colfax, CA.