Pa. DEP Finds 20 Trash Trucks with Violations

Inspections were conducted from 6 a.m. until 1p.m. All of the violations were against haulers, not the landfill.

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

DEP regional staff inspected 85 trash trucks and found 20 trucks with violations. The number of violations totaled 28, with 15 involving Act 90, the state’s Waste Transportation Safety Act, which authorizes trucks and trucking companies to haul trash in Pennsylvania. These Act 90 violations included improper paperwork and lack of or improper location of authorization stickers on each truck.

DEP inspectors also found seven violations for trucks with no signs; two violations for improper enclosures; two violations for discharged fire extinguishers; one violation for a leaking truck; and one violation for inadequate residual waste documentation. DEP inspectors issued one written warning; 15 notices of violation (NOV) and 11 summary citations for the violations.

In 2003, DEP’s Northeast Regional Office inspected 1,649 trash trucks, found 358 violations and issued 159 NOVs and 114 summary citations. Since June 2000, the regional office has inspected nearly 4,000 trash trucks and found more than 700 violations. Many of these violations are being heard before local magistrates.

The regional program is done as part of statewide “trashnet” inspections with the Department of Transportation and Pennsylvania State Police.

For more information on the inspections, visit DEP’s Web site at www.dep.state.pa.us, Keyword: “Targeting Trash.