DEP, PENNDOT Find Violations at Surprise Trash Inspection

“The region has made these inspections a priority to help improve compliance with the department’s environmental regulations and the Commonwealth’s traffic safety laws,” Tomayko says. “We have conducted literally thousands of trash-truck inspections over the past 36 months because we want to get unsafe trash trucks off the highways.”

 

The inspection at Commonwealth Environmental Landfill, which was conducted in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s Motor Carrier Enforcement Group, began at 5 a.m. and ran until 1:30 p.m. All of the violations were against haulers. The landfill was not cited.

 

DEP Regional staff inspected 78 trash trucks and found 17 trucks with violations. A total of 26 violations were noted, of which 10 were violations of Act 90, the Commonwealth’s new Waste Transportation Safety Act that authorizes trucks and trucking companies to haul trash. These violations included improper paperwork, and lack of or improper location of authorization stickers on each truck.

 

In addition, DEP inspectors found seven violations for improper enclosures or tarps; two trucks had leaking loads; four trucks had faulty fire extinguishers; one had an identification sign violation; and two violations of waste-hauling documentation were found.

DEP inspectors issued 10 notices of violation (NOVs) and 10 summary citations for the violations.

 

In 2002, the northeast regional office inspected 1,645 trash trucks, found 171 violations, issued 70 NOVs and issued 111 summary citations. Since June 2000, the northeast region has inspected more than 2,000 trash trucks and found more than 300 violations. Many of these violations are being heard before local magistrates.

This regional program is done as part of the statewide “trashnet” inspections that are done in conjunction with the Pennsylvania State Police and PennDOT.

 

For more information on the inspections, visit the PA PowerPort at www.state.pa.us, PA Keyword: “DEP Waste Management.”