Truckers blamed for ‘piss jugs’ littering highway ditches (with slideshow)
By: Marty Hastings in Health, News, Outdoors, Transportation April 7, 2015 29 Comments 45010 Views
KTW photographer Dave Eagles brought his camera to the ditch last week.
There was a winter’s worth of truckers’ urine scattered across a ditch just west of Kamloops when KTW reached the scene last week.
Among the refuse disposed near the commercial vehicle-inspection station just past the Copperhead Drive exit on Highway 1 were dozens of pee containers, including two-litre milk cartons and water bottles filled to the brim with differing hues of yellow liquid.
“It’s disgusting,” said Glenn Taylor, manager of the Thompson-Nicola District Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement (CVSE) unit.
“I don’t even know if they stop or if they just pull down the passenger window when they get full or half-full, fire it out the window and away they go,” Taylor said.
“I don’t think it’s any more of a problem in that location than it is along all of our highways.”
There are two options for truckers driving westbound who take the exit into the inspection station.
Those wishing to rest can turn right prior to the weighing area, where there is ample space to park behind the station, a payphone and two large garbage bins.
The others bypass the turnoff to the rest area, stop briefly at the scale and merge back onto the highway.
Before they hit the road, many stop on the right side of the lengthy on-ramp, on the ledge of the hillside that leads into the ditch below.
There are no trash or recycling bins there and that is where the garbage and urine is hurled down the hill.
“Is every single one of them piss-jugs? Probably not,” said Myles Tuba, archery co-ordinator for the Kamloops Target Sports Association (KTSA), which has an entrance on Hillside Drive, kitty corner from the litter and secretion.
“There’s engine coolant and truck fluid. Whether it’s piss or not, there’s no disposal site. A bin would be great.”
Louise Yako is president and CEO of the B.C. Trucking Association.
“It’s an embarrassing problem and it’s not, unfortunately, limited to that ditch west of Kamloops,” Yako said.
“Yes, companies will have policies, in terms of proper disposal, but I think what this speaks to is an overall problem related to the lack of rest-stop facilities and the belief on the part of some companies and some drivers that they either don’t have a safe place to stop, in order for drivers to take restroom breaks, or they believe there is just not enough time for them to do that.”
“I don’t think it’s any more of a problem in that location than it is along all of our highways.” — Glenn Taylor, manager of the Thompson-Nicola District Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement (CVSE) unit.
Bin or no bin, Yako agreed it is repugnant of truckers to toss trash and jugs of urine out of their rigs and into an area used by the KTSA and local joggers, one of whom complained to KTW about the problem.
Taylor said drivers who pull into the parking lot behind the inspection station have every opportunity to properly dispose of their waste.
“In between the scale and the shed, there are two steel, bear-proof-style garbage cans, like the ones that are all along the Coquihalla,” Taylor said.
“They just don’t care. They just throw them out the window. They could put all the garbage cans in the world there. I’ve never seen one of them use it for that.”
Snow hid the gruesome hillside and ditch area throughout the winter, but the spring thaw revealed the Trailer Park Boys-like scene — and a pungent aroma when the wind picks up.
Tuba called the CVSE and notified them of the problem, which he wants to see remedied before the KTSA hosts its annual 3D archery shoot on April 18 and April 19.
The CVSE immediately notified Argo Road Maintenance, which is responsible for collecting the rubbish and pee jugs, some of them filled with months-old urine.
“It’s not on anybody’s highlight reel to have to go and do that as a result of people being less than civil,” Argo’s Thompson-area general manager Harvey Nelson said, noting the waste is collected and brought back to bins at company headquarters before it’s hauled away.
“One of our guys is out there this afternoon [last Thursday] and it’s going to probably require a whole bunch more work tomorrow.”
Prisoners at the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre on Hillside Drive help with the cleanup.
Nelson said urine and trash disposal is an ongoing dilemma with no foreseeable solution.
“I’d like to say I could see the problem stopping, but I don’t,” Nelson said.
“This happens all too often. It’s not uncommon. People are pretty disgusting.”
By: Marty Hastings in Health, News, Outdoors, Transportation April 7, 2015 29 Comments 45010 Views
KTW photographer Dave Eagles brought his camera to the ditch last week.
There was a winter’s worth of truckers’ urine scattered across a ditch just west of Kamloops when KTW reached the scene last week.
Among the refuse disposed near the commercial vehicle-inspection station just past the Copperhead Drive exit on Highway 1 were dozens of pee containers, including two-litre milk cartons and water bottles filled to the brim with differing hues of yellow liquid.
“It’s disgusting,” said Glenn Taylor, manager of the Thompson-Nicola District Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement (CVSE) unit.
“I don’t even know if they stop or if they just pull down the passenger window when they get full or half-full, fire it out the window and away they go,” Taylor said.
“I don’t think it’s any more of a problem in that location than it is along all of our highways.”
There are two options for truckers driving westbound who take the exit into the inspection station.
Those wishing to rest can turn right prior to the weighing area, where there is ample space to park behind the station, a payphone and two large garbage bins.
The others bypass the turnoff to the rest area, stop briefly at the scale and merge back onto the highway.
Before they hit the road, many stop on the right side of the lengthy on-ramp, on the ledge of the hillside that leads into the ditch below.
There are no trash or recycling bins there and that is where the garbage and urine is hurled down the hill.
“Is every single one of them piss-jugs? Probably not,” said Myles Tuba, archery co-ordinator for the Kamloops Target Sports Association (KTSA), which has an entrance on Hillside Drive, kitty corner from the litter and secretion.
“There’s engine coolant and truck fluid. Whether it’s piss or not, there’s no disposal site. A bin would be great.”
Louise Yako is president and CEO of the B.C. Trucking Association.
“It’s an embarrassing problem and it’s not, unfortunately, limited to that ditch west of Kamloops,” Yako said.
“Yes, companies will have policies, in terms of proper disposal, but I think what this speaks to is an overall problem related to the lack of rest-stop facilities and the belief on the part of some companies and some drivers that they either don’t have a safe place to stop, in order for drivers to take restroom breaks, or they believe there is just not enough time for them to do that.”
“I don’t think it’s any more of a problem in that location than it is along all of our highways.” — Glenn Taylor, manager of the Thompson-Nicola District Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement (CVSE) unit.
Bin or no bin, Yako agreed it is repugnant of truckers to toss trash and jugs of urine out of their rigs and into an area used by the KTSA and local joggers, one of whom complained to KTW about the problem.
Taylor said drivers who pull into the parking lot behind the inspection station have every opportunity to properly dispose of their waste.
“In between the scale and the shed, there are two steel, bear-proof-style garbage cans, like the ones that are all along the Coquihalla,” Taylor said.
“They just don’t care. They just throw them out the window. They could put all the garbage cans in the world there. I’ve never seen one of them use it for that.”
Snow hid the gruesome hillside and ditch area throughout the winter, but the spring thaw revealed the Trailer Park Boys-like scene — and a pungent aroma when the wind picks up.
Tuba called the CVSE and notified them of the problem, which he wants to see remedied before the KTSA hosts its annual 3D archery shoot on April 18 and April 19.
The CVSE immediately notified Argo Road Maintenance, which is responsible for collecting the rubbish and pee jugs, some of them filled with months-old urine.
“It’s not on anybody’s highlight reel to have to go and do that as a result of people being less than civil,” Argo’s Thompson-area general manager Harvey Nelson said, noting the waste is collected and brought back to bins at company headquarters before it’s hauled away.
“One of our guys is out there this afternoon [last Thursday] and it’s going to probably require a whole bunch more work tomorrow.”
Prisoners at the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre on Hillside Drive help with the cleanup.
Nelson said urine and trash disposal is an ongoing dilemma with no foreseeable solution.
“I’d like to say I could see the problem stopping, but I don’t,” Nelson said.
“This happens all too often. It’s not uncommon. People are pretty disgusting.”
