Do You Know If The Radiation Levels Produced By Your Vehicle Scale Meet New York State Standards?

Dec 1

Effective Upon Promulgation, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Part 380 Regulation Requiring Vehicle Scale Owners to Scan for Radioactive Materials On May 10th, 2018, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation updated 6NYCRR Part 380 of the New York Code of Rules and Regulations. Those in New York who are authorized to do so by the state must comply with this law if they dispose of or discharge radioactive material into the environment.

Prerequisites In The Empire State

If your landfill processes at least 20 tons of garbage per day on average during the number of days it is open during a given calendar year, you are required to install and utilize a scale. For landfills that take in less than 20 tons of trash per day, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has authorized an alternative technique for determining the weight of trash.

Landfills that accept municipal solid waste or drilling and production waste are obligated to provide radiation monitoring equipment in an accessible location.

Radioactive waste detection procedures and restrictions are specified in Section 373-7.1.

At order to ensure that all garbage entering a landfill is safe, it is required that landfills that accept municipal solid waste (MSW) or drilling and production wastes install and maintain a radiation detection device in a strategic location.
The inquiry alarm setpoint of the radiation detector should be set to be at least two times and no more than five times the site background radiation levels.
It is required that the facility's background radiation levels be measured and recorded at least once daily.
Every week, the radiation detector must be checked in the field using a known radiation source.
The radiation detector must be calibrated annually, or more often if recommended by the manufacturer, and records of each calibration must be preserved onsite.
The department requires documentation and notification whenever a waste load sets off the radiation detector. Date of garbage receipt, name of transporter, location from which trash was collected, truck number or other identifying markings, detector reading, method of disposal, and date of disposal must all be documented.

The Radiation Detection Equipment

A number of companies provide radiation-detecting scales in case your present one doesn't.