State of Florida and the Justice Department filed a joint antitrust action and proposed consent decree in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. against Waste Management and Reuter Recycling alleging that their proposed merger, by removing one of only three competitors in the market, would lessen competition in the market for municipal solid waste disposal service in Broward and Dade Counties. The proposed settlement allowed the companies to merge as long as they agreed to keep a waste transfer station that Waste Management will acquire, as part of the deal, open to other waste disposal competitors. Transfer stations enable competitors to offer municipal solid waste disposal services to customers in Dade and Broward Counties, even where they do not have a local landfill or incineration facility. The settlement assures that access to the transfer station will continue to be available to a competitor, Chambers Waste Systems of Florida Inc. for up to five years, on terms that are equivalent to those that would have existed prior to the acquisition. The proposed settlement prevents Waste Management from interfering with Chambers’ ability to operate a portion of the transfer station independently as well as requiring Waste Management to make real estate available to Chambers upon which it can construct its own transfer station, giving Chambers an option to purchase that real estate within the next five years. Finally, the proposed settlement prohibits Waste Management from interfering with Chambers’ attempts to to obtain any necessary government approvals for a transfer station and obligates Waste Management to assist Chambers to obtain such approvals on the optioned real estate.