Duncan said police are issuing warnings to truck drivers who violate the ordinance for the first time, as there is nowhere for them to turn around once they reach the sign. These warnings are kept in a system so that if someone violates the ordinance again, police will write them a ticket.
“We stop them and we say, ‘Hey, this is a no thru truck area; let your company know, that way if you guys come back through here,” Duncan said.
The fine is $150, council president Tony Flood said.
Jenny Polster, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency remedial project manager for the the Tremont City Barrel Fill, gave an update on the cleanup of during the meeting. She expressed concerns about what route trucks carting off liquid waste would take with the new ordinance.
The 8.5-acre Tremont City Barrel Fill site in German Twp. is a closed industrial waste landfill. During operations from 1976 to 1979, it’s estimated about 51,500 drums and 300,000 gallons of industrial liquid waste were disposed of at the site, which threatens a nearby aquifer that provides drinking water to tens of thousands of area residents.
The site contains an estimated 1.5 million gallons of hazardous waste buried in the ground.
Residents have fought for decades to clean up the site.
The EPA and potentially responsible parties recently completed testing at the site and are currently engineering a cleanup design.
Council President Flood said it would be better for the trucks carrying the waste to take an alternate route, like Snyder Domer Road — which turns into Ballentine Pike — up to Ohio 235, in order to avoid Tremont City residents.
“If you’re going to haul something that’s hazardous, you should be going where there’s less chance of exposure to the people,” Flood said.
German Twp. Trustee Rodney Kaffenbarger said the trucks would then be near New Carlisle residents.
Polster said the EPA will have more discussions and look into alternate routes before making a final decision. They would only be able to take Tremont City Road if an exception was made for the trucks hauling off hazardous waste.
Clark County Engineer John Burr said during the meeting he will not post signs ahead of the sign in Tremont City to warn of the ordinance on the advice of legal counsel. Burr said the ordinance will divert commercial trucks to other roads that are not built for heavy commercial traffic, and Tremont City Road is thicker than others in the county.
Flood II said multiple residents have told him the ordinance has significantly reduced early-morning noise around their homes.
Springfield City Commissioner David Estrop told the village council that he understands the safety concern but other vehicles create noise and a noise ordinance would help this problem.
“There’s people in this room who tell me that ... (commercial) pickup trucks with a fully-loaded trailer will exceed your weight limits,” Estrop said.
In response, Flood II told Estrop to “get back to the city of Springfield and worry about the problems you do; stay out of our town.”
When Estrop began to respond, Flood II told him “you’re out,” and Duncan escorted him from the meeting. Estrop was allowed to return near the end of the meeting.
Commercial drivers can apply for exemptions, plus school buses, emergency vehicles and garbage trucks are exempt from the ordinance.
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