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The county's long-planned household hazardous materials collection and recycling center is being slated for opening at the Adobe Buttes landfill during the third or fourth week in April.
That is the best current estimate on the facility's start date as reported to the county commissioners on March 19 by solid waste coordinator Gary Vance.
The hazardous materials handling facility when open will accept most common household materials including paints, poisons, solvents, cleaners, batteries, light bulbs, and corrosives, Vance told the commissioners. The facility will include a "reuse station" for recycling paints, sprays and other materials to consumers.
The facility will not accept some materials including bio-waste, pharmaceuticals, sharps (i.e. needles) or radioactive materials.
Containers of unknown contents may require additional special handling procedures or off site inspection, Vance explained.
The facility will be open to county residents only. At least initially, the facility will not charge a fee to users. At its beginning, the facility will be open one day per month to homeowners and businesses who have materials considered hazardous to dispose of. The county wants to keep expenses for the government-subsidized operation to a minimum. Vance and one other current landfill employee besides himself will take the special training for handling materials brought in.
Individuals and businesses with materials to drop off will need to call ahead for appointments. As the program gets under way, Vance said, the number of appointments scheduled per day will be kept to a maximum of 50.
Appointments are being required, Vance explained, because of the time needed to log-in and process each load of materials that is accepted.
Having an appointment schedule will help eliminate long lines of frustrated people from forming, Vance told the BoCC. The disadvantage is that the number of people able to access the facility's services will be restricted.
"That could be a sore point," observed commissioner Doug Atchley. Nevertheless, the one day of operations per month will be on a Saturday, Vance said, "because that's the (day) most available to the people."
The facility's operations plan is based partly on inspection tours that Vance made of other household materials facilities in the state.
Vance makes a distinction between the terms "household hazardous waste" and "household hazardous
materials." Materials includes substances destined for recycle or reuse.
The hazardous materials management facility would be the second government subsidized recycling operation the county has started this year.
Vance reported that the other program, a recyclable materials handling operation at Hotchkiss, "is getting used a lot." Open only a short time, twice as many 40-cubic-yard dumpsters as originally anticipated have been filled and removed, Vance reported.
Commissioners noted that could mean the program will cost the county more than originally estimated.
Delta residents want a recycling location set up within the city limits, in addition to the one at Hotchkiss. Joe Kerby, city manager, reports that Delta has been contacted by two commercial businesses about the idea.
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