Pennsylvania Charges Haulers With Medical Waste Violations

Date: January 30, 2003

Source: News Room

Pennsylvania's Environmental Crimes Section has charged Waste Management of New York and Kephart Trucking of Bigler, Clearfield County, with alleged violations of the state's environmental crimes laws for illegally transporting infectious medical waste from a Brooklyn, New York, transfer station on Interstate 80 in Columbia County. Inspections were done as part of Operation Clean Sweep, a program to inspect waste hauling vehicles along Interstate 80, conducted by the Pennsylvania State Police, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Department of Environmental Protection. In May 2001, Waste Management of New York employees at the Varick Transfer Station allegedly mixed infectious hospital waste with municipal hospital waste and loaded it into Kephart's truck destined for the Shade Landfill in Somerset County. Both Waste Management of New York and Kephart Trucking are charged with three counts each of violating the Infectious and Chemotherapeutic Waste Disposal Act. Each count is a third-degree misdemeanor and carries a penalty of up to $25,000 per count.

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