[The following was received from William J. Cluck, Esquire, who represents TRRAAC.]

During a review of DEP’s files this morning, I came across the meeting minutes from the March 16, 2009 Pre-Construction Meeting for the LCSWMA Waste Removal project. Contrary to the e-mails provided to me by Manheim Township (which did not include Bob D on the list of attendees), the meeting minutes reflect that Bob Desmarais was actually in attendance at the meeting. Of course, representatives of TRRAAC were not invited to the meeting and no one provided a copy of the minutes or posted them on their web sites. Bob has never provided TRRAAC with any information from this meeting and we wonder what information he has provided to School Lane Hills Neighborhood Association.

The DEP file review did reveal some serious issues involving the cleanup and competence of the contractors. According to a DEP inspection on May 15, 2009, it appears that much of the material excavated from the dump was being classified as Alternate Daily Cover (ADC). Classifying the material as ADC instead of waste means LCSWMA may not be paying mandated state $2/ton recycling fees and host municipality fees on that material.

Further, the May 15 inspection noted that a large number of vehicles transporting the material from the dump were recorded as overweight. Twenty loads on May 13 and 18 loads on May 12. It is ironic that a project touted as reducing highway congestion and reducing road maintenance costs has overweight trucks on our roads.

Yet, DEP did not cite the company for any violations.

What’s going on with this project? Why isn’t the law being enforced? Overweight trucks filled with waste materials on local roads? Misclassifying the nature of the material in the trucks to avoid paying fees?

Has Manheim Township been notified of these issues? Have they been provided with copies of the inspection reports?