Hearing on SB324: proponents cite litter reduction at Lake Tahoe; industry and health officials raise enforcement and cost concerns

Senate Bill 324, presented on behalf of Senator Scheibel, would prohibit the sale, offer for sale or distribution for sale of water in single-use disposable plastic bottles of 4 liters or less in communities that border Lake Tahoe.

Soraya Bonner, Senator Scheibel's legislative intern, opened the hearing and described SB 324 as limited to single-use plastic bottles and not to reusable containers or other packaging such as aluminum or glass. Bonner said the bill's amendment would clarify that the affected area is the Lake Tahoe region (not the entire watershed), would make enforcement by local health authorities discretionary rather than mandatory, and would allow plastic bottles in emergencies for public safety.

Noah Banayan, government affairs manager for the League to Save Lake Tahoe (Keep Tahoe Blue), described the environmental motivation for the bill. Banayan said volunteers removed thousands of plastic bottles and bottle caps during recent cleanup campaigns and pointed to South Lake Tahoe's 2022 city ordinance as precedent. "This bill offers a critical step in the right direction by limiting the sale of single use plastic water bottles in the immediate vicinity of Lake Tahoe," Banayan said, and noted the amendment makes enforcement optional for county health departments.

Supporters who testified in person included Devin Middlebrook, former mayor of South Lake Tahoe, who said the city's ordinance had not harmed local business and encouraged alternatives such as canned and boxed water; Tristan St. Dennis of the Nevada Conservation League said microplastics and litter justify limiting single-use bottles.

Opponents included Joelle Gutman Dodson, government affairs liaison for Northern Nevada Public Health, who said her agency appreciated the bill's environmental goals but opposed the permissive enforcement language. She warned that "permissive language can still create operational and political pressure" and that health departments' core missions (food safety, restaurant inspections and preventing foodborne illness) would be stretched if asked to enforce retail sale bans.

Private-sector opposition included William Horn for Republic Services, which expressed concern the ban could reduce supply to recycling operations and harm business models that rely on bottle recycling; David Thorpe for the American Beverage Association and Donna Laffey for the International Bottled Water Association said the bill would limit consumer access to an affordable, safe product and could hurt local retailers. Thorpe said the beverage industry has reduced plastic use and increased recycled content in bottles. Retail and resort stakeholders (represented in written materials and testimony) raised concerns about costs of alternatives such as aluminum or boxed water and potential cross-border shopping by visitors.

The Vegas Chamber said an amendment (amendment 329 on the senate side) addressed enough of its concerns to change its position to neutral. Senator Schiavo, the bill sponsor, said she had been open to enforcement- and implementation-related modifications and noted some stakeholders had engaged to reach amendment language; she said she still is open to additional changes.

The committee asked questions about whether South Lake Tahoe's ordinance was a city ordinance (it was), how many businesses had been fined under that ordinance (Banayan said none), and whether the fines listed in the bill would remain if the enforcement clause became permissive (witnesses confirmed the penalty amounts remain in the text even if enforcement is discretionary). Committee members also asked about the role of education campaigns and whether the observed reduction in litter was attributable to the ordinance or adjacent education and outreach.

The hearing record includes written support from local businesses and haulers such as South Tahoe Refuse and mentions of businesses that already choose alternatives (Alibi Ale Works, Tahoe Blue Event Center, Edgewood Resort, and Heavenly Mountain Resort).

The committee closed the hearing and moved on to subsequent items; no committee vote on SB 324 was recorded in the transcript.