
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 8, 1994                    TAG: 9406070138 
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN                     PAGE: 12    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: Jody R. Snider 
DATELINE: 940608                                 LENGTH: ISLE OF WIGHT

OLD AND UNWANTED PESTICIDES BEING COLLECTED

{LEAD} Retired Isle of Wight peanut farmer John Bowers has stored bits and pieces of unwanted farm chemicals in his barn since 1986, when he stopped farming.

Bowers had planned to give the chemicals to other area farmers for use, but when farmers began using other chemicals that worked better, Bowers said he could do nothing but store his leftovers.

{REST} On Tuesday, Bowers' leftovers finally got thrown out.

Bowers' farm was one of 23 sites in Isle of Wight County where unwanted pesticides were hauled away by disposal experts Clean Harbors Environmental Services of Colonial Heights.

Robert Goerger, Isle of Wight Extension agent, said that between 10,000 and 15,000 pounds of chemicals were expected to be picked up at the 23 county sites this week.

Disposal projects in 1990, 1992 and 1993 eliminated more than 157,000 pounds of pesticides in 12 Virginia localities, according to a press release by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

This year, the county sweep is only a part of a 22-county effort to rid farmers of unwanted chemicals. About 160,000 pounds of farm chemicals are expected to be disposed of in Virginia this summer by Clean Harbors.

Federal grants of $300,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency and a Clean Water Act grant administered by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality are paying for the cleanup.

Some of the pesticides included in the roundup include DDT, lead arsenate, dieldrin and 2,4,5-T.

``There is no legal or safe way to dispose of the pesticides,'' Goerger said. ``It's not legal to take them to the landfills.''

At some farms, Goerger said, there was as much as 4,000 pounds of banned chemicals, dating back to 1974. At other farms, he said, there was as little as 200 pounds, and the chemicals were only five years old.

``Some of the chemicals were so old that you couldn't even read the labels on the container. If those chemicals couldn't be identified, the state sent a chemist out to identify them,'' Goerger said.

Goerger said the only other way that farmers like Bowers could have rid themselves of the chemicals would have been for each farmer to hire a company to haul the chemicals away.

``That could have cost each farmer $1,000 or more. And that's not an option farmers would want to deal with,'' Goerger said.

However, Goerger said only 10 percent of the farmers in Isle of Wight needed to have unwanted chemicals hauled away.

``I think this means that the other farmers were able to use what they had,'' Goerger said. ``When farmers shop, they go with a list and buy only what they need. Some people are better at that than others,'' he said.

Goerger said once the chemicals are collected from the farms, they will be packed in 55-gallon drums which will be surrounded with vermiculite to prevent spills during transport, and then taken to EPA-approved sites in Arkansas where they will be incinerated or buried.

by CNB