The county wants to make disposal of hazardous waste easier for residents of North Kitsap, but not without re-examining the environment. The Department of Solid Waste presented its six-year plan to county commissioners Monday, including low-impact upgrades to the recycling center in Poulsbo and adding a Household Hazardous Waste collection facility.
The county currently contracts with PSC Environmental Services to transfer and dispose of hazardous waste, which is collected in Bremerton. Pat Campbell, senior program manager for solid waste, said a survey done a few years ago showed that North Kitsap residents weren’t utilizing the facility.
“We want to make sure [residents] are not putting that material in their garbage to avoid coming to Bremerton,” Campbell said. The hazardous collection facility will be open about twice a month or residents to drop off materials such as paints, cleaners, oils, batteries and pesticides.
The Poulsbo recycling center, at 21868 NW Viking Way, currently collects paper and glass recycling, scrap metal, batteries, antifreeze, uncontaminated motor oil, fluorescent light bulbs and tubes, and appliances. On its gravel lot sits several recycling dumpsters, a small hut for the employees and a stormwater retention pond behind a fence.
Campbell said with a grant from the Department of Ecology, they will add a vegetative green roof to the shelter, and pervious pavement, which allows stormwater to infiltrate into the ground before reaching the stormwater retention pond. The compacted gravel doesn’t drain very well now, according to Commissioner Rob Gelder.
“It’s pretty close to the watershed that feeds into Dogfish Creek,” he said in an interview. Campbell said when major storms pass through, the pond can sometimes overflow.
“It’s mostly a turbidity issue,” she said. “There’s not harmful chemicals going in, but [stormwater] can carry some contaminants in,” such as mud or materials that cars leave behind.
Gelder said the pond may be retrofitted, to manage the runoff better.
Both projects are in early phases; Campbell said the collection facility would mostly likely open in 2013.
