CWM attempts to clear the air over transport issues

by Terry Duffy
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, November 3, 2007

Responding to ongoing community concerns over CWM trucks, safety issues of students attending the Lewiston-Porter School District’s Creek Road campus, plus concerns on blackout hours, convoys and alternative routes, Lori Caso of CWM Chemical Services attempted to both clarify and dispel many of the worries by explaining the company’s stand.

She told the roughly dozen or so gathered at a training facility deep inside CWM’s Balmer Road land fill operation that the company does in fact adhere to the various directives placed on it by means of the Community Host Agreement with Porter, DEC permitting guidelines and to those established by the Lewiston and Porter Citizens Advisory Committee.

Caso said 220 trucks each day, or upwards of 35 per hour, are permitted to enter the facility daily, although actual deliveries are much lower due to varying business volume, and that there have been very few problems.

“We’ve only had one formal complaint since the Lewiston-Porter school year started,” said Caso, telling attendees CWM trucks are permitted to operate from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., six days a week, that black out hours are in force – school days from 7:30 to 9 a.m., and from 2:15 to 3:45 p.m. and that the company does impose a number of particulars on its trucks, their cargo, and where they’re permitted to travel.

What’s Accepted?

Starting with hazardous waste transports, Caso informed that CWM-bound truck drivers are required to limit transport of materials to and from the site via designated state and federal routes. They are required to be properly categorized, with identifiable, diamond-shaped labels indicating the cargo on their carriers to classify their shipments, as well as further identifying what class (composition) the wastes are. She said CWM does not accept the following materials: Class 1 – Explosives; Class 6 – Poisons, and Class 7 – radioactives. Classes/material types that CWM does accept are Class 2 – gases; Class 3 – flammable and combustible liquids; Class 4 – flammable solids; Class 5 – oxidizers and organic peroxides; Class 8 – corrosives, and Class 9 – miscellaneous.

Caso said the bulk of their materials received, including PCBs, fall into the Class 9 category.

Moving onto concerns over blackout hours, Caso said that residents can easily become confused of trucks traveling during the posted blackout hours, due to the nature of their cargo and the various enforcement applications – such as times and designated routes. “Not all trucks entering our facility carry hazardous waste,” Caso informed, explaining, for example, that delivery trucks carrying reagents such as carbon or kiln dust, used in CWM’s various treatments, are not subject to designated routes or blackout times. Nor are empty trucks leaving the site. As a result, these trucks are permitted to travel non-designated routes, such as Route 93 to and from Ransomville, for example, where some concerns have been voiced.

She said further confusion of residents over perceived violations can arise due to the fact that another commercial landfill company – Modern Corporations – also operates nearby and its trucks need to be considered. Adding to the mix are other types of delivery trucks servicing businesses in the area – fuel delivery trucks, for example, which could conceivably be traveling Creek Road to and/or from Youngstown or other communities.

Truck Convoys

Addressing yet another complaint – truck convoys – Caso reviewed CWM’s directives issued to drivers transporting hazardous waste. They include the following:

•“No stopping or standing is permitted along the designated route” – i.e.: from the I-190 north to Route 265 (Military Road) to Route 104 (Lewiston Road-Creek Road extension), to Route 18 (Creek Road) to Balmer Road to the CWM plant entrance.

•“No deviation from the designated route. The trucks are not to be on any roadway other than state/federal highways when in Niagara County.” The exception is Balmer Road, she added.

•“No convoys in the towns of Lewiston and Porter.”

Caso said that the truck drivers are advised to keep distances of one-quarter mile apart wherever possible. However she said that traffic situations can contribute to appearances of truck convoys, such as the traffic signals found at Pletcher and Creek roads, Military and Lewiston roads, and Military and Upper Mountain roads, where trucks could back up and appear to be a truck convoy. “We have no control over these,” she said.

Addressing Violations

But where CWM does have control is when violations to any of the above restrictions arise. A first offense subjects both the driver and contractor to a warning. A second offense within three months subjects the driver to a one-month ban from servicing the CWM facility, and only returning after attending and completing a CWM transporter training class. And a situation of three or more offenses in a three-month period (including single offenses by three separate drivers) will require a representative from the transporter to attend and complete a transporter training class. Further, the transporter will be banned from the CWM site for the equivalent of four weeks, and the transporter training must be completed within six months of the violation.

As she closed, Caso, looking about the room, commented that she didn’t see any see anyone in attendance who has been critical of CWM over the transport issues, and questioned their sincerity on the concerns. She also questioned their arguments over safety at the site. “Every time someone says that they are afraid to visit the site they insult the 80-plus people that come to work at CWM every day. About one-third of our workforce has been here 25 or more years, these people are living examples that it’s safe to come to the site.”

“We do take these issues very seriously,” said Caso. She closed by advising those with any concerns, trucks or otherwise, to contact CWM at 754-7312.