Ohio Department of Agriculture and Ohio State University Lake County Extension teamed up to schedule an Operation Clean Sweep to collect old pesticides from commercial growers in Lake and surrounding counties in Ohio.
The pesticides collected are measured in pounds. 52,780 pounds of pesticides were collected in Lake County on Tuesday, August 25th at Perry Coal and Feed and owner Rick Warren who hosted the event.
Greg Minor from ODA and Thomas deHaas from OSU Lake County Extension organized the event.
One of the driving forces to host the event in Perry Ohio was the Pesticides stored in barns at the old Champion Farm. The pesticides were there for over 30 years in storage.
The property is now owned by Perry Village. Workers dressed in T-VEK suits with rubber gloves,
Respirators, Eye Protection,
and boots transferred the piles of pesticides into plastic bags and placed them on pallets.
The pallets were transferred to Perry Coal and feed
where the bags were loaded into boxes.
All material will be taken to an approved facility to be incinerated.
Along with the Champion Farm material, other applicators brought material to be discarded including DDT.
A big thank you to ODA for providing this very important service to keep pesticides out of the environment.
