PITTSBURGH – Allied Waste Systems of Pennsylvania, LLC (Allied), has been fined $65,000 by the Department of Environmental Protection for accepting waste at its Imperial Landfill on Aug. 21, 2008 without first weighing it on a certified scale, a serious violation of its landfill permit.
The landfill’s scale malfunctioned shortly after midnight, leaving Allied with no way to weigh incoming waste. Rather than diverting haulers to other landfills in the area, Allied chose to estimate the weight of the waste based on previously recorded weights for each type of vehicle. Allied reported the problem and that it had estimated the weight of 137 trucks to DEP five days later.
“Allied had several options to deal with its problem, but estimating the amount of waste it was accepting was not one of them,” said Kenneth Bowman, DEP Southwest Regional Director. “This penalty demonstrates the seriousness with which DEP takes these violations.”
On Oct. 17, 2007, Greenridge Reclamation and Greenridge Waste Services, both owned by Allied, were fined $234,500, in part for disposing of waste at the Greenridge land fill without first weighing it.
The state relies on operators of municipal waste landfills to weigh and accurately record the amount of waste collected both to ensure that the landfill does not exceed its daily limits, and to calculate the fees owed to the state, county, and host municipalities. The “tipping” fees collected by the host county and the host municipality pay for a range of community improvements including road maintenance and park improvements. The state tipping fees fund environmental stewardship programs and municipal recycling grant programs.