Previous Story
EPA planning logistics with BECQ on household hazardous waste cleanup
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is teaming up with local environmental regulators in planning the cleanup of household hazardous waste left over in the wake of Typhoon Soudelor.
EPA says that leftover household products that contain corrosive, toxic, ignitable, or reactive ingredients are considered to be household hazardous waste. They can be products like paints, cleaners, oils, batteries, and pesticides that contain potentially hazardous ingredients that require special care when disposed of.
EPA is planning this cleanup with the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality, or BECQ.
According to EPA public affairs officer Dean Higuchi, they have been updating the office of Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan on their efforts in the CNMI, sharing the status of the tasks they have been assigned to do by the federal government in aiding typhoon recovery.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has “mission-assigned” EPA to this cleanup, among others, like the collection and disposal of downed transformers across the island.
“Household hazardous waste collection will likely happen in a number of weeks, after cleanup and rebuilding is well under way on Saipan,” EPA said.
“A 40-foot shipping container of supplies, including drums, cubic yard boxes, and other materials to be used in carrying out HHW collection work has just been shipped to Saipan,” EPA said.
