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Westmoreland County moves to tighten transfer-station permits after haulers’ charges shifted to county
Summary
County staff said commercial haulers must complete a $250 permit and be billed by ton to prevent disposal charges from being billed to the county; administrators estimate multi-year charges in the low millions and will reinstitute a formal application and route documentation.
County Administrator Montross told the Board of Supervisors that the county is reinstating permit and invoicing procedures at the transfer station after discovering commercial haulers sometimes had their disposal tonnage charged to the county account rather than billed to the hauler.
Montross said third-party haulers should submit a permit application and pay a $250 permit fee before being allowed to dump at the transfer station, and that tonnage will be recorded on the scales operated by Republic. “Currently the charges are approximately, at least Republic’s charge is a little over $63 — that’s for disposal and transportation,” Montross said, and staff will work with Republic so the amounts are billed to the hauler and not to county taxpayers.
Montross told supervisors the county budgeted $3,100,000 this year for transfer and convenience-site refuse and said prior multi-year charges to the county are estimated “$2 to 3,000,000” (as stated in the staff presentation). She said staff has prepared an application form to capture pickup routes and addresses so the county can isolate tonnage per stop and prevent out-of-jurisdiction trucks from using county accounts.
Supervisor Henson supported adding an invoice-per-load and a simple route sheet so “we know where the trash is coming from,” saying tonnage isolation is needed to make billing fair to residents who haul their own trash. Other supervisors noted staff intends to bring additional tonnage analyses to the board in executive session and that public outreach about the new procedures will appear on the county website and social pages.
The board did not take a formal vote on policy changes at this meeting; staff said it will enforce permit application requirements going forward and return with any recommended ordinance or administrative changes as needed.
