Gather those bad chemicals

The North Dakota Department of Agriculture is doing its part to protect the environment through its annual collection of unusable pesticides at various locations throughout the state.

The department’s Project Safe Send program that was created in 1992 provides for the safe disposal of unwanted pesticides. Farmers, ranchers and citizens are encouraged to visit any of the 16 sites throughout the state in July to dispose of any old or banned pesticides, insecticides, rodenticides or fungicides they may have at their homes or farms.

Project Safe Send is collecting unusable pesticides in Williston on July 16 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 605 Dakota Parkway. West, across from the Kum & Go gas station.

If you have more than 5,000 pounds of pesticides, pre-registration is requested. Rinsates that contain pesticides are to be collected at no change for the first 100 pounds. A $1 per-pound fee is charged for each additional pound of rinsates. The overall limit per person in pesticides is 20,000 pounds.

Program coordinator Judy Carlson said this year they received about $39,000 more funding from the state to expand the number of drop-off sites. She said this is primarily due to the flooding earlier this year.

Carlson said with so many areas hit by flooding and the heightened risk of having homes with pesticides stored in them, the increased effort to gather old product made sense.

“People tend to stockpile things they think they’ll need but wind up not really needing at all. So we’re expecting more people this year due to a lot of people impacted by flooding,” said Carlson.

Carlson said the program has gradually increased in size and in how much product they receive each year. Last year, 536 people brought a total of about 215,000 pounds of material for disposal.

“It’s been quite successful. I get nervous each year actually, thinking we’ll be there and no one will show up. But each year we keep getting more people and more poundage,” said Carlson.

New state Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said Project Safe Send is an important project that provides the public with a way to dispose of hazardous, dangerous materials they may not otherwise know how to handle.

“Some of these products our people see being brought in are 30-, 40-year-old products deemed hazardous by the Environmental Protection Agency. The question for people was what do I do with this? These are places for them to bring them in, no questions asked,” said Goehring.

Goehring said the materials are taken and are placed in an incinerator to be destroyed. He said pesticides and insecticides with mercury and other dangerous metal are solidified and properly disposed.

Goehring couldn’t put a definite guess on what impact they’ve had on improving the environment by disposing of the various pesticides. But he said the “what-if” situation of something getting out is enough to dispose of as much as possible. He also expects an increase in people this year due to more locations and the flooding.

“We do believe in a few regions throughout the state some collections to increase. Overall, we should have a bit more than we’ve had before,” said Goehring.

Since 1992, Project Safe Send has collected roughly 2.3 million pounds of material.

For more information about Project Safe Send or for the list of other sites in the state this year, visit the Agriculture Department Web site at www.agdepartment.com and click on Hot Topics.

Anyone interested can also call your local county extension agent or Judy Carlson at 1-800-242-7535.