[HISTORY: Adopted by the Borough Council of the Borough of
Ambridge as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where
applicable.]
[Adopted 5-16-1988 by Ord. No. 1048]
A.Â
The Borough Council of the Borough of Ambridge, Pennsylvania, finds:
(1)Â
That the transportation of dangerous wastes on the streets and roads
of the Borough poses a danger to the physical welfare and health of
the citizens of the Borough of Ambridge.
(2)Â
That the recent proposals to dispose of dangerous wastes in the Borough
would involve the operation of many waste transportation trucks filled
with infectious and chemotherapeutic wastes within the Borough.
(3)Â
That the presence in the Borough of such dangerous wastes poses a
danger to both the healthfulness of the Borough's drinking water
and the health of it citizens.
(4)Â
That the streets and roads of the Borough are for the most part narrow,
bending and adjacent to the residences and gathering places of its
citizens.
For the purpose of this part, the following terms shall have
the definitions ascribed to them in this section:
All waste generated by or resulting from the production or
use of antineoplastic agents, used for the purpose of stopping or
reversing the growth of malignant cells. Chemotherapeutic waste shall
not include any waste containing antineoplastic agents that are listed
as hazardous waste under 25 Pa. Code § 75.261[1] (relating to criteria, identification and listing of hazardous
waste).
Infectious wastes or chemotherapeutic wastes or hazardous
wastes, or any combination thereof.
The same as "hazardous waste" under the federal regulations
promulgated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and
codified at 40 CFR 261.3 is incorporated by reference. All lists in
40 CFR, Part 261, Subpart D, and the appendixes to Part 261 are also
expressly incorporated by reference. The term "hazardous waste" as
used herein also includes any substance or mixture containing polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) at greater than 1/10 of 1% concentrations when such
substance or mixture is not intended for beneficial use or reuse.
Radioactive waste and by-products, as defined by the Code of Pennsylvania
1975, are expressly excluded from this definition.
Waste of any sort generated by nursing homes, hospitals or
clinics for the treatment of disease and like institutions or businesses.
The term shall also include paper products, bedding, towels, containers
or cleaning implements that have been exposed to infectious, chemotherapeutic,
pathological wastes, solid wastes, and/or hazardous wastes generated
by nursing homes, hospitals or clinics for the treatment of disease
or like institutions or businesses.
Waste that contains or may contain any disease-producing
microorganism or material. Infectious wastes include but are not limited
to the following:
Those wastes that are generated by hospitalized patients who
are isolated in separate rooms in order to protect others from their
severe and communicable disease.
All cultures and stocks of etiologic agents.
All waste blood and blood products.
Tissues, organs, body parts, blood and body fluids that are
removed during surgery and autopsy and other wastes generated by surgery
or autopsy of septic cases or patients with infectious disease.
Wastes that were in contact with pathogens in any type of laboratory
work, including collection containers, culture dishes, slides, plates
and assemblies for diagnostic tests, and devices used to transfer,
inoculate and mix cultures.
Sharps, including hypodermic needles, suture needles, disposal
razors, syringes, pasteur pipettes, broken glass and scalpel blades.
Wastes that were in contact with the blood of patients undergoing
hemodialysis at hospitals or independent treatment centers.
Carcasses and body parts of all animals which were exposed to
zoonotic pathogens.
Animal bedding and other wastes that were in contact with diseased
or laboratory research animals or their excretions, secretions, carcasses
or body parts.
Waste biologicals (e.g., vaccines) produced by pharmaceutical
companies for human or veterinary use.
Food and other products that are discarded because of contamination
with etiologic agents.
Discarded equipment and equipment parts that are contaminated
with etiologic agents and are to be discarded.
The holding of hazardous waste for a temporary period, at
the end of which the hazardous waste is treated, disposed of, moved
or stored elsewhere.
The same as "solid waste" under federal regulations promulgated
by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and codified
at 40 CFR 261.2, which is incorporated by reference herein.
[1]
Editor's Note: See now 25 Pa. Code § 261a.
A.Â
The streets and roads of the Borough, being narrow and bending and
not generally designed to accommodate heavy or constant truck traffic,
the Borough Council of the Ambridge Borough may from time to time
designate certain routes and/or particular streets for use by motor
vehicle trucks hauling dangerous waste. The following streets are
the only streets in the Borough designated at this time for transportation
by truck of hospital and infectious wastes:
B.Â
No such motor vehicles shall exceed the load limit for any such route
or road.
Trucks carrying dangerous waste within the Borough are hereby
limited to 30 miles per hour (mph) on Route 65, 25 miles per hour
on Route 989, and 25 miles per hour on Duss Avenue and any other state
or Borough road within the Borough of Ambridge that may eventually
be approved for use by such trucks bearing dangerous wastes.
No motor vehicle carrying dangerous wastes shall be closer than
125 feet to any other vehicle when within the Borough limits; this
section shall not apply to trucks following state vehicles.
Motor vehicle trucks carrying dangerous wastes shall operate
only during approved hours and not during the hours that citizens
generally travel to or from their jobs or the schools of the area.
The only allowable hours, for purposes of this section, are deemed
to be from 9:00 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.
A.Â
No truck carrying dangerous wastes may operate when the temperatures
are below 32° F. and rain or other precipitation has occurred
either within the past two hours or is expected within the next eight
hours. Expectations shall be determined by reference to the official
U.S. Weather Service forecast for the mobile county area then current;
such an expectation shall be deemed to exist if that forecast predicts
over a thirty-percent possibility of such precipitation.
B.Â
No truck carrying dangerous wastes may be operated during any officially
designated hurricane or tornado watch or during a period where winds
exceed 50 miles per hour or have exceeded 50 miles per hour at any
time within the last four hours.
C.Â
All trucks carrying dangerous wastes in the Borough shall operate
with their headlights on at all times.
D.Â
All trucks carrying dangerous wastes in the Borough shall be equipped
with two-way radios in the Borough capable of receiving from and transmitting
to the police and other emergency vehicles operated by the Borough.
Such radios shall also be capable of communicating with the Beaver
County Communications Center.
The driver of any motor vehicle truck carrying dangerous wastes
and his/her employer, who proposes to transport wastes into or through
the Borough, shall comply with the following requirements:
A.Â
Prior to 8:00 a.m. of the day that any such driver or employer expects
to transport dangerous wastes into or through the Borough, the Police
Department of Ambridge shall be notified by telephone. If more than
one truck is expected, the employer shall state in one call the expected
number. The time(s) of arrival(s) at the Borough limits, within one
hour, shall be approximated. The road(s) on which the truck(s) will
arrive shall be given and may not be changed without one hour advance
notification.
B.Â
Each truck shall be marked or placarded in accordance with the requirements
of the U.S. Department of Transportation normally applied to hazardous
waste. Such motor vehicle trucks shall bear the designation "dangerous
waste."
C.Â
Upon arrival at the Ambridge limits, each driver of a truck carrying
dangerous wastes shall drive immediately and directly to the staging
and assembly area designated for that entry street by the Chief of
Police and shall wait until a police vehicle is available to escort
such driver and truck through the Borough. The Police Department shall
not cause unreasonable or unnecessary delay in such transportation.
D.Â
When any such truck is scheduled to arrive within 30 minutes of another such truck, such trucks may leave the staging and assembly area only in a convoy and only with a police escort as provided in Subsection C. No convoy shall consist of more than four vehicles, so that no truck shall be required to wait over two hours and so that the streets of Ambridge may remain available to other traffic.
E.Â
A police escort fee per vehicle, in an amount as established from
time to time by resolution of Borough Council, shall be paid by each
driver of a truck carrying dangerous wastes, except that, when two,
three or four trucks are escorted simultaneously, the fee shall be
reduced to an amount as established from time to time by resolution
of Borough Council.[1]
A.Â
Each truck hauling hazardous wastes shall carry and have available
for inspection the manifest required for transportation of hazardous
wastes under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act[1] or federal or state regulations implementing that Act.
Such manifest shall be presented upon request of an Ambridge police
officer.
[1]
Editor's Note: See 42 U.S.C. § 6901 et seq.
B.Â
Each driver shall get out of his vehicle at the staging and assembly
area and conduct a careful visual inspection of the entire truck and
the ground under it to determine if such truck is leaking or is in
any other way damaged. This inspection shall be repeated any time
such truck is stopped within the Borough for over 30 minutes.
C.Â
Each driver of any such truck shall immediately report any accident
or collision involving his truck to the Borough of Ambridge police
via his two-way radio.
D.Â
No driver of a motor vehicle truck hauling dangerous wastes in the
Borough shall be permitted to leave the assembly area with such truck
unless such driver, or the owner or consignor of such dangerous wastes,
shall first have deposited with the Borough Clerk or Secretary an
indemnity bond with limits of not less than $50,000 per occurrence.
Such bond shall be conditioned to pay all or part of such sum as damages
or restitution to the Borough unless the responsible party shall reimburse
any person, firm, partnership, trust or corporation, including the
Borough itself, for any damages to person, property or natural resources
resulting from the hauling of such dangerous wastes or accidents or
spills incident thereto in the Borough.
E.Â
Any truck or vehicle carrying dangerous wastes shall comply with
all DEP and state regulations and laws pertaining thereto.
Except as provided for by DEP regulations, the storage of dangerous
wastes in one place for over 24 hours within the Borough is entirely
prohibited. Storage in separate places within the Borough for a cumulative
total of 48 hours or more is also prohibited.
For purposes of this article, all hospital waste will be presumed
to contain dangerous wastes.
Any person who operates a motor vehicle truck in violation of
any of the provisions of this article shall be, upon conviction thereof,
sentenced to pay a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $1,000
plus costs and, in default of payment of said fine and costs, to a
term of imprisonment not to exceed 30 days. Such sentence may not
be suspended.
