  |
|
|
Department of Ecology News Release - January 12, 2007
07-009
SPOKANE-Walla Walla and Columbia counties have been awarded nearly $437,000 in grant funds to help provide services to manage the disposal of residential yard waste, to help collect food waste for composting and to help take mercury out of the environment.
Department of Ecology (Ecology) Director Jay Manning made the grant announcement during a visit in Walla Walla to speak to the Walla Walla Rotary Club. Manning and Department of Agriculture Director Valoria Loveland were guests of the Rotary Club for its weekly meeting at the Marcus Whitman Hotel.
Manning said Walla Walla and Columbia counties have been awarded $436,875 in Coordinated Prevention Grant (CPG) funding. The grant program helps local governments pay for solid waste programs such as recycling, composting and managing household hazardous waste.
The bulk of the new grant award will be used to help Walla Walla County design and build a transfer station at the Sudbury Landfill that will allow customers to crop off yard waste at a reduced rate before crossing the scales into the landfill. "Green"/yard waste can be taken to the regional composting facility on Highway 124 until the permanent transfer station is built.
The city of Walla Walla will conduct a pilot curbside yard-waste pickup service with $7,875, which will serve 125 homes in Vista Terrace Park. The pilot project will run from March to November 2007 to determine if it is feasible to expand the service to the entire city for a fee in 2008. The program will not affect the free fall leaf-collection service.
Some $157,500 will pay for collecting pre and post-consumer food waste from grocery stores, restaurants, schools and other facilities in the city of Walla Walla to be composted at the Regional Organic Recycling Facility.
"The city and county of Walla Walla demonstrated vision and leadership in aggressively pursuing additional funding to improve the long-term health and quality of life of their communities," said Ecology Director Jay Manning. "This money will help residents reduce the amount of garbage going to the landfill, prevent pollution and make valuable compost out of food waste."
The new grant also will pay for collecting and properly disposing of liquid mercury and mercury-containing thermometers and other instruments used in the area's colleges. The money also will be used to replace these items with non mercury-containing substitutes.
Mercury is one of the persistent toxic chemicals that pose particular threats to humans because they build up through the food chain. Once lodged in organs or tissues, mercury can remain indefinitely, even affecting developing fetuses.
"Across the state we are taking deliberate and sure action to reduce the amount of mercury in our environment," Manning said. "Helping Walla Walla rid its colleges of toxic chemicals is one very good way to make a difference."
Currently up to 5,000 pounds of mercury are released to the environment from human sources within Washington state. This and other toxic chemicals that accumulate in tissues and move up the food chain are a high priority for the Department of Ecology.
Finally, Walla Walla and Columbia counties will update their plan for handling household hazardous waste.
The new "supplemental" grant is above and beyond the $305,082 awarded to Walla Walla and Columbia counties in November during the regular funding cycle to collect and properly dispose of 350 tons of household hazardous waste. The new $437,000 comes from the money that was not used by counties during the regular funding cycle. Counties needed to apply again for the supplemental money.
The grants are supported by a tax paid by wholesale distributors of petroleum and other hazardous materials, under the voter-approved Model Toxics Control Act of 1989.
###
Contact: Joye, Redfield-Wilder, public information manager, 509-575-2610
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
