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There was a surprise expense approved by the county commissioners, for the Household Hazardous Waste facility the county runs in North Branch.  

The facility staff brought the Board four quotes for proper handling and disposal of PCBs that were found in waste oil.  The facility has been accepting small amounts of various recyclable products for 20 years, and Environmental Services Director Kurt Schneider noted at this week’s meeting this is the first time a contaminant has had to be remediated.  He continued, stating, next to waste paint products, oil is the largest quantity item that is left at the facility for proper disposal. 

Schneider said the silver lining from this incident, is that the PCB substance will be kept out of the environment and the county is not looking at very costly cleanup for a body of water or a land mass.

The facility staff are looking at screening methods and data gathering used now for disposal of all types of materials, to see if there’s a better way to avoid a situation such as this.  The feeling is the person who dropped off the oil containers did so not knowing PCB contamination would be an issue.

The Board approved a quote for about $16,000 from CleanHarbors to dispose of the PCB material after facility pump out, decontamination and cleaning costs of an additional $10,456. 

The county response is being done in consultation with the MN Pollution Control Agency and the process is using state contract vendors.

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