Full Description

Agricultural chemicals, including pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, can pose a significantthreat to water quality. The McKenzie River is the sole source of drinking water for more than200,000 people in Eugene, Oregon and the Middle Fork Willamette River provides drinkingwater to an additional 60,000 people in the Springfield area. Both watersheds provide habitat forEndangered Species Act (ESA)-listed fish, with the McKenzie River having one of the lastpopulations of native bull trout in the Northwest. A recent survey of over 700 growers in theUpper Willamette Basin found that thousands of gallons of obsolete agricultural chemicalsremained on farms. To address the risk from old agricultural chemicals near these criticalresources, EWEB applied for and received a grant from the Governor's Fund for theEnvironment to conduct an agricultural chemical collection program in the McKenzie andMiddle Fork Willamette watersheds. The purpose of this program was to allow growers todispose of old pesticides and other chemicals in order to protect people, pets, livestock, andwildlife from accidental exposure and to remove a threat to domestic wells and critical drinkingwater resources. The program was free, had no limit to the amount of chemicals that growerscould bring in for collection events, and provided assistance identifying and packaging materialsfor safe transport. EWEB and several partners conducted two rounds of collection events at thecounty waste management facility and collected over 44 tons of chemicals. Includes 12 references, table, figure.

Product Details

Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 11/01/2007 Number of Pages: 12File Size: 1 file , 360 KB