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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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121189
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12118900.018
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1990-09-22
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BUSINESS, Page 79Business NotesTRANSPORTATIONAll Aboard? Not Quite
Though long-haul passenger trains in the U.S. have been
equipped with toilets since before the Civil War, they went on
dumping effluent right onto the tracks until states passed laws in
recent years forcing them to clean up their act. Amtrak, however,
was given a federal exemption from such regulations. The practice
has irked railway workers and bystanders, who have sometimes fallen
afoul of the raw waste from speeding trains.
In the first criminal case stemming from Amtrak's dumping, a
jury in a Florida state court convicted the railroad on four felony
counts of commercial littering. When sentencing takes place, Amtrak
could be fined $20,000 for its offal offense. The railroad, which
planned to appeal, said it would halt service in Florida if the
decision is upheld. Amtrak defended its foul trail as merely an
"aesthetic" problem.