Residents’ Disposal of Toxic Waste Sets Record

More than 1,000 people deposited their personal stockpiles of household toxic waste in Santa Ana on Saturday in what Orange County officials said was the largest single-day collection in the country.

Residents representing 1,230 households drove through the county drop-off center with 18,562 tons of waste amassed in bathroom cupboards and on garage workbenches: from aerosal cans of deodorant and hair spray to furniture polish and old paint.

The collection of hazardous waste, designed for residents only, drew 1,009 vehicles and everything under the kitchen sink.

“I’ve got household cleaners, auto polish things. I’ve got the pesticides I brought all the way from New Jersey when I moved here,” said Richard Maertz, 40, of Laguna Hills.

Now Has Children

The rear of his sports car carried a potpourri of items that chronicled his move from renter to home-improvement master, Maertz said as he waited to hand over his personal inventory. He now has children and wants to get rid of the potentially lethal substances.

“Being from the East, and seeing what happened there,” Maertz added, referring to the Love Canal pollution tragedy, “I know this has got to be dealt with.”

It was the fourth roundup the county has organized since last April in an effort to secure proper disposal of household chemicals considered dangerous to the environment, notably ground-water supplies, when they end up in landfills or sewers.

But there are no repositories in the county for these products. The law dictates proper storage and disposal of toxic substances for businesses but not residences.

“They have no alternative now,” said Sandi Schafer, project coordinator of the Orange County Hazardous Materials Program. “We are working on a program now for residents to be able to dispose of it regularly so they won’t have to store it. Until then, this helps.”

Saturday’s collection was organized by the county sanitation district, the city of Santa Ana and the county. The drop-off programs also have been held in Huntington Beach, Anaheim and Laguna Hills.

The Anaheim collection held last July set a national single-day record for its number of depositers and the 32,000 gallons of waste they delivered, said Bob Griffith, director of the Hazardous Materials Program. He said Saturday’s haul set a new record.

Some DDT Collected

Two-thirds of Saturday’s haul was paint and “thinner-related solvents,” Griffith said. The rest was mostly pesticides, swimming pool cleaner chemicals and oven and drain cleaners.

“We collect some DDT every time, and it’s been illegal since the early 1970s,” he added. “We had some people bring it in today--a powder form--in a plastic-lined box.” Years ago, the family had used the deadly substance for insect control. “These people knew it was illegal but didn’t know what to do with it.”

Cars lined up for several blocks outside the complex of county government offices near Grand Avenue and McFadden Street by 8 a.m., when the drop-off began. For the next seven hours, the cars snaked through what looked like a drive-in carnival. Drivers were given forms to inventory their toxic loads. Then they proceeded to any of eight drop spots.

Workers from the county Environmental Management Agency, wearing white protective jump suits, sorted through the cargo, separated chemicals into “compatible” groups and then packed it into drums.

Waste Treatment Planned

A Wilmington disposal firm will perform some treatment before hauling the 55-gallon drums to a hazardous-waste facility in Casamalia in Santa Barbara County, Schafer said. Most people questioned Saturday said they would appreciate a repository for materials they are learning they cannot give the trash collector.

“It’s mostly paint,” said Gerald Twist of Tustin, referring to his toxic trash. “Been sitting around for years. I hope there’s some place we can do this again.”