On Tuesday, Mayor Lew Starling announced that the Clinton City Council will be enacting some new ordinances within the next few months to issue penalties and criminal citations to drivers responsible for agricultural spills.
Ag spills have been a common problem for the city of Clinton and in other parts of Sampson County. Most recently, three spills were reported in August for Sampson County including one in Clinton that occurred on Lisbon Street. In most cases these spills are caused by truck drivers carrying hog waste and other byproducts to and from the local Smithfield plant. For Clinton citizens, the smell of the spills has become too frequent of an aroma.
“At the next meeting, we will be enacting some new laws in the city which would impose criminal citations for people that do this,” said Mayor Starling.
Starling said he wanted to wait until there was a full house to make a decision as two members of the council were out on leave. For the mayor, the spills have been an almost constant thorn in his side and he has been working over the past few years to decrease the number of the spills, if not get rid of them all together.
“As you know, we’ve had a lot of issues with spillage in the town and with what we believe were inadequate laws,” said Starling. “We will be doing this at the next meeting to tighten up crime and these spills.”
In most occurrences of the spills, the cause of the incident is the result of the load not being secured. Therefore if the driver slams on the brakes, the contents fly and drop onto the streets below. In one such case in 2022, a truck carrying pig carcasses on Sunset Avenue in Clinton caused a spill after the driver slammed on the brakes at a red light. As one can imagine, this sent the carcasses on the streets below, turning the highway into a horror film. In these cases, the drivers were cited for failure to secure a load and unintentional littering.
Now, the City Council will soon be amending the city code to issue harsher punishments and bigger fines. The board is seeking to amend the code by adding two new sections to cover all the bases on cases regarding spills and other littering-based crimes.
Section A reads, “No operator or occupant of a motor vehicle shall intentionally or recklessly throw, drop, discard, or deposit litter from any motor vehicle in operation upon any street, road, highway, or public vehicular area, except into a litter receptacle in a manner that prevents its being carried away or deposited by the elements.”
Section B reads, “No operator of a motor vehicle in operation upon any street, road, highway, or public vehicular area shall allow litter to be thrown, dropped, discarded, or deposited from the motor vehicle, except into a litter receptacle in a manner that prevents its being carried away or being deposited by the elements.”
A violation of either of the two sections will constitute a Class 3 Misdemeanor and the driver shall receive a fine up to $500. The amendment also adds animal waste to the list of items classified under term “load contents and litter.” According to the amendment, the term “animal waste” only applies to animal byproducts and body parts. Other transported items not classified under “load contents and litter” include sand and salt brine, and products “applied for the purpose of traffic safety by employees or independent contractors of the City or the North Carolina Department of Transportation.”
Updates on the subject will come after the meeting next month.