Free pesticide collection picks up steam

YAKIMA, Wash. -- People are evidently getting the message about pesticide disposal.

A free two-day pesticide collection this week in Yakima attracted a spike in participants, partly due to reaction to news coverage about the investigation this spring of an illegal dump site near Grandview, officials say.

Each May, the state Department of Agriculture holds a collection of waste pesticides in agricultural grades and amounts at the Yakima County landfill at Terrace Heights. Technicians package the pesticides and ship them to an out-of-state federal disposal facility.

This is the 22nd year for the annual pesticide collection, which was held Monday and Tuesday.

In March, state and federal environmental investigators began probing Bethany Hills Farms for illegal burial of about 150 containers, household garbage and petroleum products.

Some of the containers held pesticides, officials said, leading to local "hot spots" of contaminated soil and water.

This year, 76 people brought pesticides. That's about double last year's turnout.

"The increased attention on the situation in Grandview definitely got their attention," said Joe Hoffman, the Agriculture Department's pesticide disposal program coordinator.

A total of 109 people signed up, but many of them didn't show or didn't qualify because they have household hazardous waste. Those people were directed to a county facility, also located at the Terrace Heights landfill.

More than half of those inquiries came during a weeklong extension of the deadline from March 23 to March 30, Hoffman said.

That was right after the first news accounts about the illegal dump site on Bethany Road, north of Grandview.

"I know what our phone did here at the end of March; it got very busy," Hoffman said.

Department technicians collected more than 37,000 pounds of pesticides.

Not all the clients were farmers. Many people find chemicals stored on their property after purchasing or inheriting the land.

Some of the stuff goes way back. Hoffman said one client brought in a canvas and metal applicator backpack used to spray a dust form of pesticide. He dated it to about the 1930s.

It still contained material. He doesn't know what it was.

"I wasn't about to pull the lever," he said.

The Department of Agriculture, the state Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continue to investigate Bethany Hills Farms, also called Double "H" Farms. They found elevated levels of dimethoate, carbaryl and glyphosate, the active ingredient in Round-up in water and soil samples near the two-acre burial site.

EPA officials plan to send letters to about five or six homeowners within a half-mile radius of the site offering free testing of their domestic wells, said Andy Smith, a federal on-scene coordinator for EPA.

Officials do not suspect contamination of those wells.

"I suspect not, from the site, but just to put people at peace of mind," Smith said.

Excavators found contaminants buried six to eight feet deep. The water table is about eight feet in that area, but most domestic wells are likely deeper than that, Smith said.

Also, contaminated soil and water samples were concentrated in "hot spots" near the burial site.

The EPA also plans to drill monitoring wells at the edge of the property to see if those chemicals spread.

* Ross Courtney can be reached at 509-930-8798 or rcourtney@yakimaherald.com.