2,666 Jugs of Urine Found on Highways

[AKA]

2,666 Jugs of Urine Found on Highways

The Associated Press

KENNEWICK, Wash. - Forced to clean up an increasing number of jugs and bags of human waste along highways, the Adams County Waste Reduction & Recycling office took out a full-page newspaper advertisement to combat the problem.

The ad features a photo of a plastic milk jug filled with urine, and the message, "Okay, One last time: This is not a urinal."

From March 4 to Nov. 27, 2002, one Adams County highway cleanup crew picked up 2,666 jugs of urine and 67 bags with human excrement in them.

The problem isn't limited to Adams County.

Megan Warfield, litter program coordinator for the state Department of Ecology, had posters similar to the newspaper ad printed and made them available for any county that wanted them. About a dozen counties have ordered copies to deal with the problem, she said.

"All of the cleanup crews encounter it. It's pretty much the same around the state," she said. "Ironically, they're mostly found on interchanges near rest areas. Why can't they stop there?"

Ninety-nine percent of urine is sterile, but could be dangerous if it contains hepatitis or blood, she said.

Warfield said human waste falls under a newly created category that the Legislature created last spring: potentially dangerous litter.

Human waste, dirty diapers, cigarettes, cigars, tobacco or other items that can start a fire, and hypodermic needles or medical instruments designed to cut or pierce, fall into that category.

The fine is $1,025 for anyone caught dumping such waste, but the new penalty doesn't seem to be easing the problem.

Karen Cagle, who supervises highway cleanup crews in Eastern Washington, had never heard of urine jugs when she started her job in 1989.

Now the numbers grow each year.

"Several years ago, we started finding them and didn't know what to do with them and left them. But you can't leave it there or the freeways would be (flooded)," she said. "It's incredible what's out there. Where is it going to stop?"

Gary Lembacher, who oversees the litter program in Eastern Washington, said he does not let the kids on his work crews pick the bottles up.

"I just don't trust any liquids," he said. "You don't know if it's pesticide or if there's something used in methamphetamine."

Taxpayer money not only pays for highway cleanup, but also pays for the state Department of Transportation to dispose of the human waste at the landfills.

"I don't know what the answer is," he said. "People are getting more out of control."

[Tuesday Weld]

Nasty.

[Georgia's on my Mind]

gross

[Babes_Cat]

uh.... um.... yeeeeah.

[TJL]

Well, when ya gotta go, ya gotta go.

[robyrob]

so do they have a "sting" operation planned yet?

[PZelda]

Ummmm....ewwwwwww. That's gross. I would NEVER do something like that.

[Brent88]

What in the world?

[Kitt]

Divert the 'picking up urine bottles off the side of the road, budget' into the 'highway roadside portapotties or toilets, budget'. Must be Chevron and Texaco lobbiests, who want everyone to pull over at their gas stations, that are keeping us from having ample amounts of roadside toilets. Why would roadside toilets be a novel idea. People have felt the urge to pee since the beginning of time haven't they?

[Lucylover22]

What an interesting story...

[phoebe7165]

Do you know who is doing all this??!! It's TRUCK DRIVERS! As much as I hate to admit it, because I, too, drive an 18-wheeler over-the-road. I see this all the time on the side of the road, at rest areas & at truck stops. When I'm walking my dogs, I see it and I think it is gross & disgusting. I have NEVER and will NEVER do something so disgusting. This is just another reason why truck drivers have such a horrible reputation with the general public. Not all truck drivers do this, and I see letters all the time in the trucking magazines and papers about this problem, but there are enough of them doing it to make it a problem and to make us look bad. What really grosses me out, and I've seen truck drivers do it, and that's they're parked at a truck stop, and are only 50 ft. from the building and they get out and urinate on one of their tires. I saw a truck driver do that recently. I stopped at a rest area in Wisconsin one night to use the bathroom. It took me all of a minute to walk in the building. When I came out and walking back to my truck, I saw the driver parked next to me get out of his truck, and face one of his tires. Did he actually think nobody was going to see him? I should've got his company name and his truck number. I don't know why I didn't. I didn't say anything to him, either, because I'm sure he would've told me 'Shut up, b****', sad to say. But how lazy are you to not walk a minute inside and use the bathroom properly?

There is a truck parking shortage in this country and I don't know if any of you noticed late at night alot of big trucks parked on exit ramps and shoulders of rest areas, but that is still no reason for these "trashy truck drivers" to dump their excrement. These "bad apples" make the rest of us look bad.