Hey Brother, can you help a trucker out?

[scoutsdad]

We use to have a nice truck stop on I-10 at Road Forks, New Mexico, 7 Miles East of Arizona. I heard that they needed new tanks so they just left and moved on. I don't see where that helped anything.

 

[gregintenn]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I work for our state's DOT, and haven't previously thought about this being a problem. I'll bring it to the attention of our management. We've locally closed some rest areas on interstates for the nuicances of frequent homosexual and other lewd acts, as well as other crimes frequently there. It could be that truck drivers could police themselves a bit to avoid this in other areas.

 

[Spotteddog]

I watched a fuel station being "brought into compliance" once. For anyone never having witnessed the process, you would NOT believe the antler dance! The earth is excavated down to a pre-requisite depth, then "steam cleaned"! Yup, you read that right! Steam cleaned! Hell, I'd run, not walk away from any patch of dirt I was staring down the barrel of that on too! Multiply the area in cubic feet, in a truck stops case acre's, and add money till the EPA is satisfied.

 

[truckemup97]

Originally posted by gregintenn:
We've locally closed some rest areas on interstates for the nuicances of frequent homosexual and other lewd acts, as well as other crimes frequently there. It could be that truck drivers could police themselves a bit to avoid this in other areas.

Unfortunately that happens. Sometimes truckers are involved, sometimes it's locals. As for truckers "policing" themselves, that might be seen as a hate crime or vigilantism.

If the higherups in TennDot would be willing, they might study Florida's rest area system. It's one of the better ones around, with large parking areas and frequent patrols by law enforcement.

Spotteddog and scoutsdad, environmental compliance can be a real problem, especially in older facilities. Leaking tanks can cost literally millions of dollars. In the case of the Road Forks truck stop, I would imagine that there just wasn't enough business to justify the expense. I've stopped there before, but haven't been there in quite a while. I didn't know it was closed.

The state of Oklahoma collects a tax of one cent per gallon of fuel sold to help the smaller retailers with tank replacement and cleanup. That's a nice idea, but it's still another tax we have to pay. I'm not sure just how I feel about it.