Well, I knew at some point I would have to do some “trash-talking,” so here we go. The message is simple: We can’t put just anything we want into the trash. We can’t dump just anything we want down the drain. We can’t dump anything but water into the storm sewer. And we can’t flush anything we want down the toilet. Let’s start with our curbside waste. We have had a recent problem with televisions being left at the curb. Effective July 1, 2009, it is illegal to dump e-waste (TV’s, computers, monitors, printers, etc.) per Indiana Code 13-20. The landfill cannot accept them. They will turn our drivers around and refuse to unload. Likewise, they will not accept household hazardous waste (paints, chemicals, tires, batteries, medications, sharps, mercury-filled fluorescent bulbs, etc.). The simple solution is for all city residents to take these landfill contaminants to the KC Recycling Depot at 220 S. Union St., Warsaw. In fact, they will celebrate America Recycles Day on Saturday, Nov. 10, by accepting all electronics and paints for free. There is normally a small charge to dispose of them. City residents are also encouraged to utilize curbside recycling, and separate yard waste pickup to help extend the life of our county landfill. Next, there are two systems that handle water. The first is the sanitary sewer system that moves all wastewater from sinks, toilets, showers, etc. As we have closed the old Boggs Industrial Park treatment plant this past month, all wastewater flow now ends up at the treatment plant just off of Fox Farm Road. At the risk of “too much information,” suffice it to say that microbes at the plant breakdown and “digest the effluent.” Dumping old pills, medicine and other chemicals “down the toilet” can literally wipe out the population of beneficial microbes and render the treatment plant temporarily useless. The KC Recycling Depot accepts old medicine and the KC Sheriff’s Department has a drop-off for the same. The second water handling system is the storm-water drain system. It is a separate system that directs runoff from all roofs and hard surfaces (parking lots, driveways and roads), into retention ponds and ditches. The storm-water is then either absorbed back into the ground or runs off into our lakes, rivers and streams. Dumping any hazardous chemicals (motor oil, household and lawn chemicals, etc.) into drains or manholes is illegal. Destruction of wildlife, contamination of our lakes, streams and pollution of our drinking water is a certain result of careless dumping. Because of the population of our city, Warsaw has been identified by IDEM as an MS-4 community. This simply means we must develop a separate utility company to manage both our storm-water quality and quantity. You will be hearing more about MS-4 and the creation of this storm-water utility in the future. We are all proud of our lakes and parks as strong community assets. From a different perspective, a local landfill is also a very important community asset as is an ample supply of water. We must continue to protect these assets. I sure like what we have been blessed with.
