[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. 
The Borough Council of the Borough of Ambridge, Pennsylvania, finds:
(1) 
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) 
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) 
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) 
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.
B. 
For the purposes, therefore, of ameliorating the concerns of citizens reflected in the findings in Subsection A, the following measures are required.
For the purpose of this part, the following terms shall have the definitions ascribed to them in this section:
CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC WASTE
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).
DANGEROUS WASTE
Infectious wastes or chemotherapeutic wastes or hazardous wastes, or any combination thereof.
HAZARDOUS WASTE
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.
HOSPITAL WASTE
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.
INFECTIOUS WASTE
Waste that contains or may contain any disease-producing microorganism or material. Infectious wastes include but are not limited to the following:
A. 
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.
B. 
All cultures and stocks of etiologic agents.
C. 
All waste blood and blood products.
D. 
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.
E. 
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.
F. 
Sharps, including hypodermic needles, suture needles, disposal razors, syringes, pasteur pipettes, broken glass and scalpel blades.
G. 
Wastes that were in contact with the blood of patients undergoing hemodialysis at hospitals or independent treatment centers.
H. 
Carcasses and body parts of all animals which were exposed to zoonotic pathogens.
I. 
Animal bedding and other wastes that were in contact with diseased or laboratory research animals or their excretions, secretions, carcasses or body parts.
J. 
Waste biologicals (e.g., vaccines) produced by pharmaceutical companies for human or veterinary use.
K. 
Food and other products that are discarded because of contamination with etiologic agents.
L. 
Discarded equipment and equipment parts that are contaminated with etiologic agents and are to be discarded.
STORAGE
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.
WASTE
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. 
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:
(1) 
PA Route 65.
(2) 
PA Route 989.
(3) 
Duss Avenue.
B. 
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. 
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. 
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. 
All trucks carrying dangerous wastes in the Borough shall operate with their headlights on at all times.
D. 
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. 
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. 
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. 
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. 
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. 
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]
[1]
Editor's Note: Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. I).
A. 
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. 
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. 
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. 
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. 
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.
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.
[1]
Editor's Note: Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. I).