[Pharmwaste] Goal is program for safe, legal disposal of pharmaceuticals in Benton County, Arkansas

DeBiasi,Deborah dldebiasi at deq.virginia.gov
Mon Oct 15 10:44:21 EDT 2007



Goal is program for safe, legal disposal of pharmaceuticals
By Gary Lookadoo Staff Writer // garyl at nwanews.com

Posted on Sunday, October 14, 2007

URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/54545/


BENTON COUNTY - Pharmaceuticals not used by seniors and others and
placed into the water supply may damage the environment. But some Benton
County residents are working to make Benton County the first in the
state to start a county pharmaceutical waste program to deal with the
problem. 

Such a program would give county residents a safe, legal and
environmentally sound procedure through which to dispose of unused
pharmaceuticals, some of which might otherwise contribute to
environmental problems, said Nancy Busen, lab and pretreatment
supervisor for the City of Bentonville Wastewater. 

" The problem is... that the pharmaceuticals aren't something that can
be treated with wastewater treatment. So they are going through the
whole system. And there are a lot of endocrine disruptors and they are
causing male fish to turn to female fish. What they have been finding in
streams all over the country - and they have found it here in northwest
Arkansas as well -... (is that ) something like 80 percent of the fish
are female after the treatment facilities. And before the treatment
facilities it's 50-50. And in some areas of the country it is almost 100
percent, depending on the level of pollution.... Before the treatment
facilities the ratio of male to female fish is 50-50. After the
treatment facilities they are finding fish... (that ) are males with
female eggs. And they're also finding mostly females, " Busen said. 

An official of the state Department of Environmental Quality gathered
information about the affect of the problem on streams in Arkansas and
advised her and others there was a need for such programs to be started
in the state, Busen said. Soon, Benton County Judge Gary Black formed a
committee to work on the problem, she said. 

She's not sure how quickly such a program might be established in Benton
County, Busen said. 

Such programs exist and work well in some other states, but there are no
such programs in Arkansas, she said. " This is a program that's already
in place in California.... People can take any of their medicines that
they no longer use or are outdated and instead of dumping them into the
wastestream they can take them to a drop box.... It will be in the
police station because what we want to be able to take is controlled
substances as well as just your over-the-counter medications, " she
said. 

The drugs would be kept under law enforcement jurisdiction, Busen said.
" What we are proposing is that local law enforcement have a place to
get rid of those in their lobbies. They would have a place where people
could just go and anonymously drop those in, " she said. 

A law enforcement officer would take the unused medicines to a special
incinerator, Busen said Now, he is checking state and federal laws and
guidelines about how legally to set up the program and, with help from
another state senator, proposing a state lawmakers' study of the matter,
said state Sen. Kim Hendren, R-Gravette. It's important to get the
program started, but it's also important to know the rules before
setting it up, the Gravette state senator cautioned. There are many such
laws and procedures in place, and while the program's objective is a
worthy one it still needs to be set up only after thorough study and
consideration, Hendren said. 

" The County Judge's office called me about that this afternoon and I
told them... that (state ) Senator Percy Malone (D-Arkadelphia ) had
agreed to introduce an interim study (by state legislators )... to try
to get some state information before we get too carried away on county.
They wanted to have another meeting but the last time we talked about
that we just needed input from the state on the various rules and laws
and so forth. And I'm going to ask the Health Department to show up when
we have that interim study down there (in Little Rock ), " Hendren said.


Black was not available for comment by press time Friday, Oct. 12. 

Copyright (c) 2001-2007 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights
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Deborah L. DeBiasi
Email:   dldebiasi at deq.virginia.gov
WEB site address:  www.deq.virginia.gov
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Office of Water Permit Programs
Industrial Pretreatment/Toxics Management Program
Mail:          P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA  23218 (NEW!)
Location:  629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA  23219
PH:         804-698-4028
FAX:      804-698-4032



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