COUNTYWIDE : Haulers Get Stopped for Toxic Check

The state conducted a surprise inspection of toxic materials haulers on the Riverside Freeway on Tuesday, taking samples from five suspicious cargos but issuing no citations.

The six-member crew from the Department of Toxic Substances Control looked inside 31 eastbound trucks during the 6 a.m. to noon inspection at the California Highway Patrol’s weigh station just west of Weir Canyon Road in Anaheim, but found no obvious violations. It was the first such inspection in Orange County in at least two years.

“We do these truck stops periodically throughout Southern California,” said Allan Hirsch, a department spokesman. “We want it established with the haulers that we do come out on the freeways and check to make sure they are in compliance. We want them to know that we do care that they are in compliance with all of our laws.”

As trucks pulled through the station for their mandatory weight check, a toxic control inspector ordered haulers believed to be carrying toxic materials, legally or illegally, to pull over. Less than one truck in 30 was pulled aside.

Inspectors, dressed in plastic suits, rubber boots, hard hats and goggles, asked the drivers what they were carrying, examined their paperwork and glanced into the cargo area. Most were waved on in less than five minutes.

A sample was taken if the inspectors suspected that a hazardous product was being hauled illegally or improperly. The samples will be tested at a laboratory in the next several weeks and citations of up to $5,000 will be issued if violation of state laws regulating the hauling of toxic material is found, Hirsch said.

“We don’t cite the driver, but the trucking company or, in some instances, the company that generated the wastes,” Hirsch said. “We only cite the driver if he’s an independent.”

In one case, inspectors used a jar to take a sample of a thin purple liquid that was dripping from a B.P. John Co. truck driven by John Gabriel, who said he was hauling sawdust from Temecula to Chino. He said the liquid was rain water that had percolated through the wood. Inspectors said they just wanted to be sure and he was allowed to leave after the sample was collected.

Douglas M. Phelps of Costa Mesa was the driver of another truck that was pulled aside. It turned out he was not carrying hazardous waste but presses that crush used oil filters. He favored the inspections.

“I think it’s great,” Phelps said. “I think most haulers are on the up-and-up, so I don’t think they’ll mind.”