State officials have issued 124 notices of noncompliance with waste bans in the last four years, although only four fines have been issued. Environmentalists say 124 is a tiny fraction of the true number of violations going on.

Few cases are as illustrative as South Hadley, where residents and town officials took it upon themselves to document hundreds of violations of the waste ban at the South Hadley Landfill.

After the local Board of Health wrote a letter to the state, the Department of Environmental Protection issued a notice of noncompliance to the company that operates the landfill, Advanced Disposal. But the South Hadley Board of Health recently wrote another letter complaining that the state did not issue a penalty. In fact, the letter notes, the day after the company received the notice of noncompliance, a South Hadley resident videotaped a truck dumping an entire load of wood in the landfill.

“It is a joke; what is the point of having a state ban if there are no consequences?’’ asked Suzanne Cordes, clerk of the South Hadley Board of Health. “They need to fine them.”

An official with Advanced Disposal declined comment. Joe Ferson, a DEP spokesmansaid, “Based upon the data we have seen, the waste ban compliance rate [at South Hadley] is unacceptable, and we are investigating the situation.”