Tag Archives: Morris

1999-06-16 and 17 – ANJHHWC Meeting Minutes

Posted on June 23, 1999 | Leave a comment

Location: Mullica Hill, Gloucester County, NJ

Attendees

  • Gregory Sharp, Wade Environmental
  • Allen Winn, Burlington County
  • Matt Hood, Burlington County
  • John Cannata, Sussex County
  • Jack Sworaski, Camden County
  • Ken Atkinson, Gloucester County
  • Diana Vigilante, Somerset County
  • Laura Macpherson, Morris County
  • Alain Fortier, Monmouth County
  • Virginia Lamb, Monmouth County
  • James Witte, Focus Recycling Systems
  • Carole Tolmachewich, Middlesex County
  • Fred Stanger, Middlesex County
  • B. Ellie Arnould, Passaic County
  • Rich Baroch, Bergen County
  • Ralph Davis, NJ DEP
  • Mary-Jo Kennelly, Clean Venture Inc.
  • Chris DiVirgilio, Camden Co. Bomb Squad

The meeting was called to order by Ken Atkinson at 10:25 a.m.

Introductions

Fred Stanger made a brief presentation. He was one of 3 people in NJ to receive a package from the EPA seeking applicants to apply for a grant to fund a clean up of pesticides from farmers known as a ‘Clean Sweep’ program. He was not sure ANJHHWC was permitted to apply (since then has received the go ahead) but wanted feedback on whether it’s worthwhile to pursue.

County Update

Gloucester County has held one Recycling/Reuse day on 4/24 and had 368 cars and collected over 40,000 lbs. of material at a cost of $13,900. They had an HHW on 5/1 and had 682 cars and collected over 75,000 lbs. of material at a cost of $21,500. They plan to have 2 more Recycle/Ruse Days and 1 more HHW day this year and plan to add 4 Recycle/Reuse days for 2000. Wade Environmental is their current contractor.

Middlesex County has held 3 HHW days so far and has 4 more scheduled. 1,635 cars came through the first 3 events. Clean Venture/Cycle Chem is their contractor, bid on a per car basis @ $0.00 / car with a flat fee of $27,333.00 per event. The permanent paint and paint related products program has collected 125,417 lbs. of material between Jan. 1 and June 30. Their contractor is Focus Recycling Systems at 36.99 cents / lb.

Sussex County held one HHW event on 6/5 and had 417 cars and collected between 25 and 27 tons of material. They are holding a 2nd event in November. Their contractor is AETS on a per pound basis @ 49 cents per lb.

Monmouth County has accepted over 200,000 lbs. of material at their permanent facility since the beginning of the year. They pay 8 cents per pound for transportation/disposal. They average 100 cars per week and they are a week behind in scheduling appointments (very busy!). They held 1 HHW day in April and are holding another one later this year.

Camden County has held 2 HHW days and collected 123,000 lbs. of material at 34.6 cents / lb. They also had 1 paint only day and collected 8,000 lbs. at 25 cents / lb. Their contractor for both events is Clean Venture/Cycle Chem. They plan to have 2 more HHW events and 3 more Paint only days.

Passaic County has held 2 HHW days and had 971 homeowners and 16 businesses attend. A total of 50.5 tons of material was collected by Clean Venture/Cycle Chem at a rate of $26 per car. There will be 1 more HHW day in the fall.

Morris County has accepted over 100,000 lbs. of material at their permanent center in one year from 800 cars (including businesses). They charge their residents who bring latex paint. Their contractor is AETS on a per pound basis @58 cents / lb. They also had 2 HHW days and had 1200 participants at $38/car contracted out to Remtech (who is being bought by Clean Venture/Cycle Chem.)

Somerset County has held 2 HHW events and had 1,569 participants at $27/car. Their contractor is Radiac Research Corp. They plan to hold 2 more events.

Burlington County has taken in over 200,000 lbs. of material at their permanent facility so far this year, equating to about 1,700 cars. They are open Tues. through Sat. Two thirds of the material is from DPW’s. They also have been seeing out of county residents show up i.e. Mercer and Camden county residents who are charged by weight per waste stream.

Bergen County has held 1 HHW day and serviced 2,400 cars at $26.96 / car and their contractor is Radiac Research Corp. They also held 1 paint only day, a new venture, and serviced 410 cars without much advertising at 33 cents / lb. with a $2,000 set up fee and that contractor is Focus Recycling Systems. They plan to have 1 more HHW event and 3 more paint only events for 1999.

NJ DEP -  Ralph Davis- Based on national trends, and tying in with the National Task Force on Mercury, the DEP is suggesting that we pay particular attention to the amount of mercury we are collecting at our events. That also means to pay attention to the amount of fluorescent light bulbs being collected, if applicable. We might be asked to give data on quantities collected in the future.

Mr. Davis is also examining the wording in our contracts with regard to keeping track of this ‘unregulated’ waste (HHW being exempt from RCRA, etc). Please send him a copy of your bid specs if you have not yet done so. He suggested 5 ways to improve your contracts:

  1. Require that HHW that would be considered hazardous to be treated as hazardous
  2. Have bidder include in submittal a list of the TSD’s that will be used
  3. Require Cert.of Disposal/Destruction and/or copies of all outgoing manifests and withhold a meaningful amount of payment until you get them (ie. 10-20%)
  4. Make contractor solely and totally responsible for packaging, transporting, and disposal.
  5. Use hazardous waste manifests

Vendor Chat

  • Gregory Sharp from Wade Environmental reported having secured contracts with Gloucester, Cumberland, Atlantic and Salem counties. They are waiting for a general permit to begin operating in Philadelphia as a consolidation point.
  • Mary Jo Kennelly from Clean Venture/Cycle Chem has been very busy attending Southern NJ HHW events including Camden, Ocean and Cape May counties. She is now located in Camden at the oil/water and oily solvents processing facility previously owned by Remtech. You can reach her at (856) 365-5544 or via fax at (856) 365-0801. (editors note, So. Jersey has a new area code!)
  • James Witte of Focus Recycling Systems mentions that Focus has entered their 4th year into the business since starting in 1995. They have contracts with Middlesex and Bergen counties for paint recycling/disposal. They have been doing door to door HHW collections, including Estate sale situations. They are searching for an investment partner and want to concentrate on creating a 100% post consumer paint product and bring the costs to recycle paint closer to the costs to solidify/landfill paint. They are also seeking to relocate their operations from NY to NJ. They do not deal with radioactive and medical wastes.

Video

ANJHHWC is interested in looking into having a video produced on HHW and members seem interested in pursuing the idea. Costs could range from $5,000 to $20,000 and it was suggested to limit it to 15 minutes, and target 6th grade through adults. Perhaps supplement with activity guide/books/wheels. A sub committee will be working on this. Anyone interested in participating should call Carole Tolmachewich at (732) 745-4170.

Lunch: sponsored by Wade Environmental and the GCIA

Camden Co. Bomb Squad

Chris DiVirgilio from the Camden Co. Bomb Squad / Sheriff’s Office made a presentation regarding his experiences in working with explosives. Some common explosives are fireworks, chemistry sets, black or flash powder, ammunition, picric acid and ether. If you can prevent it, don’t move the material and instead have the Bomb Squad go to the location, it’s much safer. You can utilize NJ bomb squads from the following locations: Atlantic City, State Police, Bergen Co., Hudson Co., Newark, Morris Co., and Jersey City. These folks receive technicians level training by the Military and FBI and receive a formal refresher course every 3 years by the FBI. You can reach Chris by calling (856) 374-6235 or via e-mail at c4cmdv@aol.com.

Meeting adjourned at approximately 1:00 pm. and those interested went on to tour the PSE&G facility in Paulsboro with regards to computer reuse/recycling/demanufacturing.

Upon arrival at PSE&G, the DEP was there hand delivering PSE&G’s certificate to operate. The NJDEP is planning to add consumer electronics (CE) to the Universal Waste Rule, specifically Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT’s) and PSE&G has been a participant in the feasibility study to support that decision.

Our tour of the facility was conducted by Jim LeCates, IR Specialist with PSE&G, and you can reach him at the Gibbstown office at (609) 224-1639 or via e-mail at jlecat@pseg.com.

PSE&G’s 55,000 square foot warehouse holds all surplus materials generated within the company including computers and light bulbs.

The computer program started out as an in house program to fully utilize their own resources. When a computer entered the Recovery Center, it was sent back out to a PSE&G employee who could use it. The program has expanded to giving computers as donations or sold. PSE&G hires a contractor to test the computers which takes about 1.5 hours to complete. The computers slated for demanufacturing are sent out various contractors.

Bonus Minutes

Day two of the ANJHHWC conference found a few members touring the NJ State Aquarium. It was a very interesting ‘back stage’ tour, and here are a few facts to ponder.

The main tank at the Aquarium holds 760,000 gallons of Camden tap water with 80 tons of Morton Salt and 25 tons of other salts and minerals. It’s maybe third largest, after Epcot, Monterey, and possibly Baltimore. The water temp is between 63 and 68 degrees F. The ‘glass’ at the main viewing area of the tank was manufactured by Mitsubishi in 3 pieces which is 6 5/8 inches thick. It’s not glass at all, but plastic (like Lexan?) and only the water pressure is holding it in place.

Each year sharks kill about 5 people worldwide, but humans kill over 100,000 sharks. (who’s more dangerous?). The 2 types of sharks in the main tank are Sand Tiger and Sand Bar (sp?).

There are over 100 different tanks all together at the aquarium and each has it’s own filter system and lighting, and temperature control.

Ken Atkinson knew the question of the day – “What was the name of the robot shark in Jaws?” Come to the next ANJHHWC meeting to find out the answer.

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1998-10-29 – County Update

Posted on November 5, 1998 | Leave a comment

 At the October 29, 1998 ANJHHWC meeting, the county HHW coordinators provided updates on the status of their programs.  Provided below, in the order presented, are descriptions of the updates provided by those who were there.  

Middlesex County – Fred Stanger

8 HHW days in 1998 with a slight turndown in participation.   Feels the expansion of the paint only programs impacted participation at HHW days.   Will probably cut back to 7 HHW days next year.
Radiac Research was the HHW vendor at a fixed cost of $23,000/HHW day. 
Paint collection at municipal recycling depots are conducted throughout the county year-round.  Paint is deposited in sea-land boxes and collected by vendor.  Pays $0.34/lbs. gross weight for paint.  Also pays municipality hosting paint collection $100/day to man the collection.
Just finished up procurement for elderly/disabled HHW curbside collection.  Those over 62 years old or disabled, according to criteria established with the help of their County Office of Aging, can get free or subsidized HHW pickup.   To date, no participants yet. Used County Meals-Through-Wheels program to promote the program.  Maybe the meatloaf is no good.

Passaic County – B. Ellie Arnould

The last of two HHW disposal day in 1998 had almost 1,000 participants.  Clean Venture was the contractor and they pay $26.00 per car with not set up fee.
CESQGs can participate and pay the contractor directly. 
Thinking of switching to 2 programs in northern and southern locations in the county instead of using the one location in Wayne which is in the central portion of the Passaic County. Surveys showed 43% of the participants came from Wayne when held in that municipality.
Stopped paying for Newspaper ads and they have not seen a decline in participation.

Somerset County – Diana Vigilante

Ran 4 HHW days in 1998 and the most recent had 800 participants.  The total for 1998 was 2,687 participants.
Clean Venture was the contractor and they paid $30.00 per vehicle.  They have a requirement of 20 employees per day and have had no problems with program completions.
16 CESQGs participated in the program for a fee.

Morris County – Laura Macpherson

MCMUA opened permanent facility on 4/25/98 and have had about 600 participants use it so far.  It’s working out very well.  AETS is the contractor and they get paid about $450/weekday or $550/Saturday to man the HHW facility and the MCMUA also pays $.36/lb. to manage all other materials.
The MCMUA accepts appointments for its permanent facility from CESQGs and out-of-county generators for a $1.25 pound fee.  Other counties are happy to have this outlet.
Conducted 4 HHW days in 1998 and had participation of   2,374 vehicles.  Remtech was the vendor and did a great job.  The contract was for $28.45/vehicle. 
The MCMUA sees significant amounts of reuse products off of the reuse table being taken home by happy residents on their way out of the HHW day.
Universal waste program for bulbs, ballasts, batteries, mercury items works successfully out of its Consolidation Center in Dover.

Mercer County – Dot MacArthur

Had 2 HHW days this year with the last one having 900 participants.
Radiac was the contractor.

Monmouth County – Alain Fortier

The operate the HHW permanent facility with four people and he is having trouble looking for people to work there and is currently looking for someone.   The facility’s Tues. through Saturday appointment book is usually filled.
Managed 4,000 participants in 1998 averaging 28 cars/day and averaging about 100 pounds per participant.
Wade is currently the contractor that manages the materials.   Is going to be seeking disposal services directly with facilities in future procurements.
Ran 2 HHW days in 1998 and the last one had 300 participants.
Has a really cool use of delivered propane tanks to heat one of his buildings and Suburban Propane was happy to help them install it.

Burlington County – Allen Winn

Managed 500,000 lbs. of HHW so far in 1998 from 4,000 participants.
Half of the HHW came to the facility by way of a DPW collection, consolidation and delivery program to the facility.  This makes the facility more efficient and works very well.  “Too good to be true.”   The HHW comes in boxes of oil based paints, latex based paints and boxes of “other” HHW.  The permanent facility workers unpack and repackage these materials.

Sussex County – John Canata

2 HHW days in 1998 with one coming up on 11/7/98.
They do between 300 and 500 cars per day.
Remtech is their contractor and they bid a net weight per pound and pay $.549/lb.  They weight the truck on the landfill scales on the way in and then on the way out to calculate net weight.
Waste flow control issues may impact ability to provide programs in the future.

Gloucester County – Ken Atkinson

Ran 5 HHW days in 1998 but 3 of the 5 were recycling HHW materials only, i.e. paint, oil, antifreeze, etc. 
In the 2nd year of a three year contract.
1998 participation in all 5 programs was 2,433 and the last HHW day had 900 participants.
Cost of HHW programs was $75,000 for the year and they are considering scaling up to 10 programs per year in the year 2000.
On two recent occasions DPW solid waste collection workers were overcome by fumes.  Luckily, no one was seriously hurt but  it provided so good promotion of the county upcoming HHW days.

Ocean County – John Haas

Ran 22 HHW days in 1998 and Winward Industries was the contractor for the second year in a row.
Pays 0.34/lb. for mixed HHW and $0.279/lb. for paint.   The expansion of the paint programs have cut into the  participation of HHW programs.
John Haas goes to every HHW days and is virtually the only one from the county government that has ever attended one.

Bergen County – Rick Baroch

Conducted 3 HHW days this year with a total of 6,700 participants.
Radiac Research was the contractor and cost was $23.76/car.   Radiac brings in about 60 workers and process 15 participants simultaneously averaging 400 cars per hour!
The expansion of propane tank deliveries has become a real problem. 

NJDEP – Ralph Davis

Stated the Universal Waste regulations are being finalized so if anyone has suggestions on items that should be included in them they should mention them now.  An example of mercury in natural gas regulators was given as an item that deserves to be added to the list.

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1996-12-15 – A Year in Review – NJ HHW County Programs 1996

Posted on December 22, 1996 | Leave a comment

On December 5,1996 the ANJHHWC conducted its final meeting of year. The highlight of the meeting was the discussion of the year in HHW as each County told tales of their experiences and programs. These discussions are summarized below.

  1. Atlantic – Conducted 3 HHW days. In addition, the 1st Saturday of each month is paint, battery, oil and antifreeze recycling at the recycling facility.
  2. Bergen – Conducted 3 HHW disposal days. Republic Environmental conducted the program and it was bid on a price per pound for different categories of waste. This lead to problems tracking the large quantities of waste collected at each event. There were a total 6,700 participants at the 3 days, 440,000 pounds of waste were collected and it averaged $34.00 per car. At the last event the contractor was way understaffed which lead to waits up to one hour. In 1997 the County will try recycling latex paint with Murrel Paint located in Bayonne, N.J.
  3. Burlington – Only County to operate a full scale permanent HHW facility in N.J. They managed 400,000 pounds of HHW from 2,000 – 2,500 participants for lower costs than the previous year. They are managing oil-based paints as a universal waste through municipal drop-off sites. The municipalities collect the easier & safer to manage HHW and deliver it to the County facility. The County signs a bill of lading when they receive this waste. The County recycles its own latex paint (low-tech) and sells it for $1.00 per gallon. It goes quickly at this rate. The County recycled 46,000 feet of fluorescent bulbs primarily from schools.
  4. Camden -  Conducted 4 HHW disposal days plus 6 additional paint only days. Wade Environmental was the contractor and the contract was based on a price per pound. The cost were $0.47/pound for HHW and $0.32/pound for paint. For the HHW days they average 800 – 1,000 cars and had 2,200 participants for the paint days. If HHW showed up at the paint days Wade handled it. They have batteries collection sites at schools. The first paint day only had 14 people show up because it was scheduled for the Saturday of Memorial Day. They started a thermostat collection program through HVAC dealers that is not flourishing. Suggested that the promotion was not adequate.
  5. Cape May - No information posted.
  6. Cumberland - Conducted 3 HHW disposal days. They got some of their sewerage authorities to chip in to pay for one of the events. Wade Environmental was the contractor and they had no problems. The contract was on price per pound and it was for $0.51/pound. They have a school hazardous waste inventory program where they work with schools to help them manage the hazardous wastes internally and then schedule deliveries to the HHW days. They brings oil and antifreeze tanks on-site for bulk containerization. For promotion, they suggest that 8½” x 11″ inserts in newspapers are cost effective but you need to reserve this space early. People show up to the disposal days with these inserts in their hands.
  7. Essex - No information posted.
  8. Gloucester - Conducted 2 HHW disposal days plus 3 paint only recycling days. Wade Environmental was the contractor and did a good job. The contractor was based on a price per pound with costs of $0.49/pound for HHW and $0.37 for paint. The costs for 1996 were down 12% from 1995. They accept up to 200 pounds of hazardous waste from schools and municipalities. Anything over that has to be paid for by the generator.
  9. Hudson - No information posted.
  10. Hunterdon  - Conducted 4 HHW disposal days. They had two contractors during the year, due to bid sequencing and they were Clean Venture and Republic. They averaged 300 cars per event and an average cost per car of $35 – $50. They collect batteries at drop-off sites in schools then inmates sort them by type. They call in C.R. Warner to do oil, antifreeze and diesel fuel collection and recycling during their HHW days. PCB’s in drums of paint and paying for this became an issue in one of their contracts.
  11. Mercer - No information posted.
  12. Middlesex - Conducted 7 HHW disposal days and averaged between 500 and 700 people per disposal day. Radiac Research was the contractor and contract was based on a per car basis. The programs ended up costing approximately $34.00 per car. A participant arrived with crystallized ether late during one of the days causing a closing 15 minutes early. It was safely disposed of by the County’s bomb squad.
  13. Monmouth - Conducted 5 HHW disposal days with both Radiac Research and Wade Environmental as contractors. They have 7 health department employees help on the disposal days. Their permanent facility had its ribbon cutting ceremony in the fall but it is not open yet. Making all of the electrical components in the permanent facility’s building inherently explosion proof has caused several delays.
  14. Morris - Conducted 4 HHW disposal days and had 2,200 participants. The contract was based on a per car plus a setup cost per day. The contract was bid at $0.00 per car and $17,900 per participant. There were no other costs. Collected approximately 250,000 pound of HHW throughout the year. In addition, the County accepted approximately 50 drums of batteries managed by Focus Recycling. It has just started a fluorescent bulb recycling program that has not caught on yet where the County will accept bulbs for $0.15/foot including packaging. It has received its permanent HHW facility permit approval from NJDEP and will be going out for construction bids in January 1997.
  15. Ocean - Conducted 26 HHW disposal days throughout the year and handled 9,900 cars collecting 925,000 pounds of HHW. The contractor was Clean Venture/Cycle-Chem and it was based on a price per pound all inclusive including PCBs. The participants must pre-register and reserve space to go to an event. Feels demand in Ocean has peaked and for the first time they had to try hard to promote the program in order to fill the available appointments. In addition, they take in oil, antifreeze, batteries and empty paint cans at their county recycling center. Managed 40,000 pounds of batteries through Wade Environmental and also recycle 975 gallons of oil/month at the recycling center.
  16. Passaic - Conducted 1 HHW disposal day and had Rem-Tech Environmental as the contractor who did a good job. It was on October 19th which was a day of torrential downpours experienced by several counties but they program went well. The price was bid per pound and the cost per car turned out to be $35.00 per car.
  17. Salem - No information posted.
  18. Somerset - Conducted 4 HHW disposal days. Clean Venture was the contractor and the contract was on a per car basis. They had 2,000 participants for the year and the events cost approximately $20,000 per event. They collect batteries curbside throughout the County and deliver approximately 20 drums of batteries per event for recycling.
  19. Sussex - Conducted 2 HHW disposal days. They serviced more cars this year for less money. Their contract was based on a price/net pound.
  20. Union - Conducted 6 HHW disposal days. Cycle-Chem was the contractor and the price was based on price per pound plus setup per day. The cost was $0.23/pound plus $17,000 setup cost per HHW day. The average cost was $34.00 per car. They averaged between 500 – 800 participants per day. They had a problem of a small leak in a roll-off that was caught on film by a resident and it caused the cancellation of an entire program. They recycled 25 tons of batteries that they collected from drop-off sites for $0.23 per pound. There was a contest between schools to see which one could recycle the most batteries.
  21. Warren - Conducted 2 HHW days where there were 3 simultaneous collection sites throughout the county. EcoFlow, out of North Carolina, was the contractor and did a good job. Managed 80 drums of batteries during the HHW disposal days.

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1993-06-01 – A Day in the Life

Posted on June 8, 1993 | Leave a comment

by Larry Gindoff, Solid Waste Coordinator, Morris County, NJ, June 1993

As Morris County’s household hazardous waste (“HHW’) coordinator since 1987, I ran eight uneventful HHW disposal days prior to the one that occurred on a very hot Saturday in June of 1993. This disposal day, which taxed the ability of the workers and the patience of the residents, is the subject of this article. My description will illustrate several potential problems that must be considered when designing a safe and successful HHW program.

This day started like any other HHW disposal day. I arrived at the Morris County Road Department Garage at 6:15 a.m. and at 6:30 a.m. a caravan of trucks belonging to Wade Salvage of Atco, N.J., started rolling onto the site. By 6:45 a.m. the site was bristling with action.

It was cool, crisp morning but the crystal clear skies and the knot in my stomach made me realize it was going to be a scorcher. Although we stopped requiring pre-registration, I knew from the inquiries I had received that this was going to be Morris County’s busiest disposal day to date. My instincts were correct because at 7:00 a.m. the first resident arrived. I told her we were scheduled to open at 9:00a.m. but she insisted on waiting to “beat the crowd.” By 8:00 a.m. there were approximately 150 people like her there to beat the crowd.

The Road Department employees who were there only to setup the site worked feverishly to get all of the cars off Hanover Avenue, a busy County Road, and onto the garage site. Luckily we redesigned the queuing pattern from previous years to allow for approximately 75 cars to line up on-site. In the past the site was laid out for approximately 25 cars to queue on-site but due to predicted demand, we redesigned the layout but it was obviously not enough.

To accommodate the remaining 75 cars waiting for us to open, we established a second line on site much like the dreaded lines you encounter at a DMV inspection station. I knew people weren’t going to be happy when we started to run a program like the DMV and I was right. We opened just after 8:00 a.m. and the hazardous waste came pouring in.

Wade’s workers quickly got busy emptying out the trunks of the participants. Initially processing two cars simultaneously, then four then six. We were accepting waste at record rates. By no fault of Wade Salvage, the lines just got longer. One problem was, the site was so congested with cars lining up, and eventually with paint cans unloaded but not yet consolidated into drums, there was no room for cars with one or two items to pass cars that were no completely unloaded. This resulted in choke points, longer lines and angry people. 

Eventually the line could no longer be contained on-site and it spilled onto Hanover Avenue. The local police were immediately called to control traffic on this road. One line got longer until it reached a major intersection one quarter mile down the road. At this point the police closed the line and would not let any other cars on it.

To complicate matters, resourceful residents parked on a side street and walked their hazardous waste down to the collection point. Before I knew it, I had a procession of people lugging down multiple cans of paint, pesticides and chemicals to the processing area. Although, we quickly stopped these walk-ons, the damage was done. We had more angry participants and unknown material deposited.

At the worst, people had to wait an hour to get unloaded but by 11:00 a.m. we got into a good flow of unloading cars and the wait was down to 15 to 20 minutes By 1:00 p.m. there were no more cars lined up off-site. By 2:00 p.m. closing time there were just a few cars to process. We survived Morris County’s busiest HHW disposal day with just over 1,000 participants. The only thing left to do was to pack the vast amount of waste left unprocessed in piles. I knew there would be no more surprises. I relaxed for a moment and at 4:00 p.m. ate my first food for the day, a cold five hour old cheese steak sandwich.  It was getting late and I was eager to go home. I was ready to go into work Monday and explain why we had such long lines and how we were going to change it for the future. After all, many people in a rage screamed, “Who’s in charge here and where do I complain?”

It was 10:00 p.m. when the bad news came. The chief chemist alerted me to the fact that they had discovered a jar of crystallized picric acid which is very unstable and explosive. He suggested that for safety’s sake we notify the County’s emergency management unit and bomb squad; so I did.

Within five minutes a jeep with flashing lights arrived on-site from the local fire department asking what was going on. The chemist explained the situation to him and he communicated over the radio with other officials. All I was thinking was that I wished this guy would shut off his flashing lights so as not to draw any additional bad publicity to my HHW program.

Before I realized what happened, this firefighter took control of the situation and ordered the evacuation of the site bringing all work to a halt. Eleven homes within a quarter mile of the garage were evacuated. If this wasn’t bad enough, it was decided to close Hanover Avenue for a quarter mile on each side of the garage. While the emergency personnel decided what to do with the bottle of picric acid the size of a small jar of spaghetti sauce, more and more equipment and personnel arrived on the scene. Soon to come were several ambulances, several fire trucks, the Mayor of the Township, the County Administrator, a County Freeholder and scores of emergency personnel including volunteer firefighters and paramedics.

At 4:00 a.m., after several hours of preparation, the bomb squad signaled everyone by blowing a horn that it was about to detonate the picric acid. A big bang ensued, no one was hurt and the episode seemed over. The emergency personnel packed up their equipment, and left the scene. There was still the work of loading all the filled drums onto the trucks before the job was done. Wade reassembled its work force and went back to work.

By 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning all the drums were loaded, counted, manifested and the caravan started to leave the sight. At 6:15 a.m., exactly 24 hours after I had first arrived, I started my car and drove home. This was like no other HHW disposal day.

I have told you this story of a day in the life of HHW management so both the HHW coordinator and disposal company can learn from my experience. Following that June 1993 program, the County relocated its HHW disposal days to the parking lot of its Fire and Police Training Academy. This site had much more room to operate and was utilized for two disposal days in the Fall of 1993. Both disposal days operated like all the other disposal days I had conducted except that one big event on that hot June day.

 ——————————————————————————–

Name: Daniel Capelle
Affliation: Onyx Environmental Services
EMail: dcapelle@onyxes.com
Date: 1/13/00

Comments
Onyx Environmental Service (OES), with offices located throughout the East Coast and centered in Flanders, NJ most likely could have handled the picric acid management as safely and with less cost and less down-time for Morris County. Along with conducting several HHW events annually, OES has a highly-trained and well-equipped Reactives Chemical Group (RCG). The RCG utilizes a specially designed Remote Opener, BATF- issue Fragmentation Gear (ppe) and other equipment on a weekly basis for just this sort of material managment. An appropriate solvent (in this case water) is added to the container once opened. The material is then available for standard handling, transportation and disposal as a hazard class 4.1 (Flammable Solid) material. Detonation as a management technique can cause a lot of headaches and usually is not the best option. Sorry for the Company pitch…I couldn’t resist…I coodrinate the RCG of the Midwest. As a side note, I too have worked several long hours on HHW events; however, your 24-hour tale has me beat…my longest to date is a 20-hour day.
——————————————————————————–

Name: Greg Boe
Affliation: Scott County (MN) Environmental Health
EMail: gboe@co.scott.mn.us
Date: 8/5/99

Comments
I feel your pain!! We too had one collection day worse than all the rest, with nearly 1000 cars. Our saving grace was that our collection was held at a County Highway Garage out in the country, so the line of cars spilled out onto a 2-lane country highway rather than a busy city street. It gets to be a long day…my back and feet hurt for days!!! We got a few angry calls on Monday, but it actually worked to our advantage, as it clearly showed our citizens the need for a permanent HHW Facility open multiple times per month rather than the one-day collections and ever-increasing lines of cars!! GOOD LUCK!!!!

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