Fish Garbage Services said it was responsible for the medical garbage strewn along Elm Street in Rapid City last week.

Surveillance tapes show that two bags of medical garbage were left on the roof of the Fish garbage truck as it picked up medical garbage at Black Hills Surgery Center last week.

Residents called law enforcement and complained after finding oxygen masks, syringes and rubber gloves on the street and sidewalks.

Shane Sieveke, sales manager with Fish, said the company hauls 4.2 million pounds of garbage every month, and last week's mistake was an isolated incident. He said the company apologizes for the frustration it caused.

He said it is the company's policy to "take extreme care when emptying customer's containers and also when transporting these materials to the appropriate disposal sites."

He said, however, that it is the customer's responsibility to dispose of waste materials properly.

A Black Hills Surgery Center schedule was found among the items on the street, and Bill May, chief executive officer of the surgery center, said the center takes responsibility for that.

"We've taken steps to get that remedied," he said.

The medical garbage was not considered biohazardous medical waste, May said, although residents were not aware of that when they saw the waste spilled on the street.

May said the medical supplies found on Elm Street, including syringes, were not hazardous. There were no needles in the syringes. Nonhazardous medical supplies, such as the ones found on the street, are discarded at the city's landfill in an area away from general trash.

Any biohazard waste, including needles and anything with bodily fluids, is hauled from the center in a separate van and is incinerated, he said.

By mid-afternoon Thursday, the Rapid City fire department's hazmat team was called in to remove the supplies.

May said the surgery center will continue to use Fish for trash removal service.

"I think we've treated this as learning experience," he said. "We've both learned from it, so there will not be a repeat."

Contact Kayla Gahagan at 394-8410 or kayla.gahagan@rapidcityjournal.com