In a March 22 letter to local government officials and other interested parties, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer announced that his staff is finalizing legislation that would set routing requirements both for trucks carrying hazardous waste and those that are large, long-haul, solid waste-carrying trucks.

“We are going to tweak our bill to account for long-hauling, make it explicit that that would be included,” Schumer spokesman Josh Vlasto said, noting that some area officials had been concerned that trash haulers would not be covered by Schumer's original proposal.

“Now our bill encompasses what it was intended to.”

In an October visit to Skaneateles, Schumer announced his ideas to get large trash haulers, many of which are on their way to and from the Seneca Meadows landfill in Waterloo, off of local roads and back onto the interstates.

In late January, he introduced legislation that would mandate the federal government to require that all states establish routing systems for trucks carrying hazardous materials.

But in recent weeks, the Upstate New York Safety Coalition Task Force, an area group concerned about the environmental, infrastructure and quality of life effects that members say such haulers can have on local roads, has raised concerns that Schumer's proposal wouldn't help their cause, as general household garbage isn't identified as hazardous materials under Department of Transportation regulations.

Schumer's updated legislation, therefore, would not only require New York to create dedicated highway routes for trucks carrying hazardous materials but would also “expand the regulatory power of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to require large, long-haul solid waste carrying trucks to adhere to these state-established, preordained truck routes,” Schumer wrote.

Such routes would apply to five-axle, single-trailer trucks hauling solid waste that travel on the National Highway Network for more than 200 miles.