Overloaded trucks ticketed
State Police crack down on haulers bound for Rensselaer dump
Massive trucks rumbling in and out of a large dump in Rensselaer, in addition to drawing the ire of neighbors, were also hauling more weight than legally allowed on state roads, State Police found in unannounced checks last week.
Troopers found a number of overweight trucks as part of more than 170 citations issued Thursday and Friday to trucks on the way into the Dunn construction and demolition debris dump on Partition Street Extension.
For the 36 trucks that were stopped and weighed, troopers issued 29 tickets for various weight violations, said State Police spokesman Beau Duffy. It was not clear how many trucks were cited, as a truck can receive up to three different types of weight-related violations.
Lou Sebesta, a resident of Partition Street, which is the
only entrance to the dump, said on Monday that State Police set up portable scales in front of his home to weigh incoming trucks.
The trucks carry construction and demolition debris such as concrete, sheetrock, asphalt, masonry, roofing materials, plumbing fixtures, insulation (but not asbestos), empty buckets, wood, plastics and “pulverized waste.”
Sebesta said several truckers got tickets for hauling loads that were heavier than their permits allowed.
In one case, Sebesta said, he was told by a trooper that a truck that could not legally weigh more than 80,000 pounds came in at 109,000 pounds. Sebesta said he was told by the trooper of another instance where a truck came in at 105,000 pounds.
Under state transportation law, a truck cannot have a gross weight — which includes both the truck and its cargo — of more than 80,000 pounds, without another type of permit issued by the state Transportation Department.
“S.A. Dunn and Company, LLC. fully supports enforcement of traffic laws as it ultimately provides for safety on our roadways. While we are aware that recent inspections on the public roadways have occurred, we are not privy to the specifics of what was inspected nor the outcome of the inspections,” the company said in a statement. “We continue to fully support these activities and promote safety with all customers that use our facility.”
Sebesta is part of a grassroots coalition of neighbors called Stop Trucks From Assaulting Rensselaer. The group opposes the dump, which opened in 2015 in a long-established sand and gravel mine. Since then, more than 50,000 heavy trucks have rumbled through the Partition Street neighborhood.
Opponents want the state Department of Environmental Conservation to reconsider its 2012 permit that allowed the dump and enforce a limit of 100 trucks a day Monday through Friday.
“These trucks are terrorizing our neighborhood,” said Sebesta. “There was never a noise study done before the DEC issued its permit. We want a noise study now,” he said.
The dump is drawing debris from seven Northeastern states, according to a Times Union analysis of monthly reports filed by Dunn with DEC. Trucks are hauling an average of 56,000 pounds of debris each, according to the TU analysis.
“This situation is disgusting, the noise and dust from all these trucks,” said another neighbor, Patty Livingston. “I cannot open my windows. I cannot hold a conversation in my living room with all these trucks going past my house.”
This month, the national headquarters of the Sierra Club, a environmental advocacy group, retained a lawyer to help neighbors study the 2012 DEC permit for potential flaws.
That lawyer, John Barone, is a member of the Albany law firm of Tooher & Barone. Barone is a former board member of Saratoga PLAN, a not-for-profit environmental advocacy group in Saratoga County.
In August, DEC fined S.A. Dunn, an affiliate of the regional waste company Waste Connections, $50,000 for four separate environmental violations at the dump.