MTU students to seek funds for household hazardous waste collection EAGLE RIVER ’Äì Keweenaw Peninsula communities may have the benefit of a collection site for household hazardous waste if the grant-writing effort of a group of Michigan Tech students is successful. MTU graduate students Mike Robertson, left, and Fred Young address the Keweenaw County Board of Commissioners at their Feb. 13 meeting at the Courthouse in Eagle River. The students plan to write a grant for Michigan Department of Environmental Quality funding of household hazardous waste collection for local government units who express an interest in applying. In a recent presentation to the Keweenaw County Board of Commissioners, MTU graduate students Mike Robertson and Fred Young told commissioners state funding through the Environmental Assistance Division of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) could make it possible to set up a facility or a mobile collection program for household hazardous waste in the local area. The purpose of the program would be to prevent hazardous waste from going into a landfill or being dumped in the woods or in septic or wastewater treatment systems. The students plan to write a proposal for the grant as a project for their course in Environmental Decision Making, taught by Mary Durfee, Michigan Tech associate professor of social sciences. Young said the purpose of the grant is not to create a new waste center, but just to set up a collection site. Whatever is recyclable would be sold or re-used. The rest would go to a proper disposal site. "It would be a transfer station where people could bring household hazardous waste," he said. "A truck would then ship it to a permanent hazardous waste facility outside the Keweenaw Peninsula." Young said household hazardous waste ’Äì such as batteries, oil, paints, solvents, aeorosols, automotive oil filters, transmission fluid and antifreeze ’Äì currently ends up in landfills, which leak the hazardous substances into the environment, causing groundwater contamination. When people dump hazardous waste into a wastewater system, he added, it contaminates the system and can cause major problems. Mary Durfee, Michigan Tech associate professor of social sciences. Said Durfee, "My class is working on this to see if we can generate interest." The students are merely doing the legwork of writing the grant proposal, she explained, while the people signing the application would have to be a government unit ’Äì possibly with a non-profit group in a joint application. Eligible to apply are townships, cities, counties, regional government agencies, health departments, cooperative extension services and other qualifying agencies or organizations proving capability. The grant would fund the first two years of a seven-year project. Requests for the funding will be accepted from March 1, 2001, to May 31, 2001. A review panel will make a preliminary recommendation on project funding, and the MDEQ will make the final decision. Young, a Laurium resident, said it’Äôs an issue of Upper Peninsula residents getting their fair share. "Downstate these facilities are numerous, but people up here don’Äôt have access to one," he noted. The program goal is to provide funding to underserved Michigan populations for household hazardous waste (HHW) collection programs. Eligible populations are those that have access to two or less collection days per year or communities that offer either no HHW collection programs or programs inadequate to reach the targeted population. The State of Michigan, Clean Michigan Initiate Bond Fund will provide $500,000 for the current round of funding. Projects must total at least $50,000 to be considered. Eligible activities for the funding include the cost of establishing a permanent site and/or a mobile collection program; costs associated with a collection event; start-up promotional expenses; handling, storage and disposal costs; and other operating, training and equipment costs necessary to the collection activity. In addition to Keweenaw County, Durfee and the students have already contacted Baraga and Houghton county boards as well as Houghton and Hancock city councils. They plan to talk to Ontonagon and Gogebic County officials as well. Keweenaw County Board Chairman Frank Stubenrauch Keweenaw County Board Chairman Frank Stubenrauch said such a project would have to involve the cooperation of at least those five counties in the area. "That’Äôs the area of our local health department. I’Äôm sure they’Äôd want to be involved," Stubenrauch said. "I think there would be a need for (the facility) ’Ķ I’Äôd like to hear more about it and see what the counties think about it ’Äì whether it would be practical." Keweenaw County Commissioner Don Keith Keweenaw County Commissioner Don Keith of Eagle Harbor, who has had first-hand experience with both solid waste and hazardous waste collection at the township level, said he was aware of local residents’Äô lack of access to a hazardous waste disposal site in the area. "It’Äôs a serious concern and a problem up here," Keith said. "I want to support it, (but) it has to be economically feasible." Keith said he appreciated the students’Äô bringing up the issue and he hoped they would return with more details on the project, such as: Where do these products go? Who is going to take them and at what cost? Who will be liable? What are the collection requirements? "It’Äôs a growing concern and a growing problem. It’Äôs not going to go away," Keith said. "If you give people a reasonable means to dispose of hazardous materials, the overwhelming majority will because they are concerned about the environment and the quality of life." Young said Baraga County showed an interest because of water quality issues. Robertson said the Houghton County Board referred the students to their Solid Waste Committee. "We’Äôll be getting back with them," he said. While Keweenaw County does not have a committee for solid waste, Keith noted the best place to bring up the subject of hazardous waste is to the recently formed township land use planning committees. "It needs to be thought out ’Ķ with the costs and all the details," he said, "and planned (for the long term). This is part of land use planning." Durfee said the students need to know how many cities or counties in the area would be interested since the grant requires a 25 percent local match of cash, in-kind goods and services and/or third-party contributions. Added Young, "If we can get it done this semester, we’Äôll actually write the grant proposal for any local government that’Äôs interested." While both Young and Robertson are working on doctoral degrees in MTU’Äôs Humanities Department, Durfee said the students working on this project for her class are from various disciplines. Young noted this project allows the students to gain the practical experience of writing a grant proposal for a real-life situation in the community. "It’Äôs a benefit personally to take something from theory and put it into a practical application," he said. For more information call Fred Young at (906) 337-4563 or Mary Durfee at (906) 487-2115. ’Äì Michele Anderson February 21, 2001