Countywide : 3 More Toxic Roundup Days Being Considered

Following the success of the county’s first toxic roundup day, officials said they are considering holding at least three more collection days this year until they can establish a permanent dumping program for hazardous materials.

Workers protected by rubber suits and gloves collected 270 55-gallon drums during the waste collection last Saturday. Although most of the products brought to Huntington Beach were paint, household cleaners and pesticides, there also was some “extremely hazardous waste,” said Karen Peters, a senior staff member of the county’s Hazardous Materials Program.

This included cyanide, arsenic and DDT, a federally banned pesticide. Workers also received two compressed cylinders of unknown material, which will be analyzed before burial, Peters said.

Orange County does not have a treatment facility for waste such as old drain cleaner and furniture polish, Peters said. The 270 gallons of waste collected during the roundup was taken to a Santa Barbara County site, the nearest treatment facility.

Toxic waste cannot be dumped in a regular landfill for fear that it could seep into the ground water supply.

Children are most often the victims of toxic exposure. In 1982, 90% of the 130,000 people treated at hospitals for such accidents were children. “That’s a pretty scary figure,” Peters said.

Along with the “consciousness-raising,” the staff of the the county’s hazardous materials program, established last October, plans to recommend at least three more roundup days in different parts of the county this year, Peters said.

Last Saturday’s roundup cost the dumpers nothing; the county picked up the $50,000-$60,000 tab, Peters said. In a survey of the 582 cars, representing 702 households, participating in the collection, the majority said they would pay $1 to $5 for another toxic waste roundup, she said.

The program staff also will recommend that the county Board of Supervisors establish an ad-hoc committee to look at a permanent waste collection site, alternatives such as recycling centers and, eventually, a treatment facility in the county, Peters said. The latter, she said, would be run by private business because “the county does not want to be in the business to treat toxic waste.” Recently, the Board of Supervisors ruled out the idea of privately run landfills.