An Agricultural Pesticide Collection and Disposal Event has been planned in the County of Tulare, in partnership with the Kings County Department of Agriculture. This disposal event will take place October 5th – 7th, 2022, with drop off times from 8:00 a.m.to 3:30 p.m. each day. The event targets pesticides specifically for agricultural use – unwanted or legacy – from growers that farm in the participating counties. This is an amnesty event, and no regulatory action will be pursued for participation in this event.
This is a wonderful opportunity for growers as events like this seldom occur anywhere in California. The last thing anyone wants to see happen is these products be disposed of improperly. By offering this free service, we’re helping keep these chemicals out of landfills, rivers, canals, storm drains and illegal roadside dumps. This has a positive impact on our environment as well as it, lessens the chance of groundwater contamination and helps people get rid of containers that are taking up space in their barns, garages, or businesses in an environmentally safe manner. Aside from cleaning out their own property, some families may be faced with cleaning out barns and storage buildings of older relatives who have passed away.
Some of the chemicals they come across could be 40 or 50 years old. Pick-up services are unfortunately not available, and participants will need to safely transport their pesticides to the collection site.
When we held this event in October 2018, we collected over 100,000lbs of pesticides from over 150 growers. We hope that this year’s event is just as successful. This event takes many months, of planning, resources, and staff time to put on, so it unknown when an event like this could take place again.
Your pre-enrollment is to ensure the event will be well planned and scheduled so that agricultural pesticides that are no longer used can be properly disposed. The Agricultural Commissioner Personnel needs to gather information to make sure adequate funds are secured prior to the event. The counties have contracted with Clean Harbors, a licensed hazardous waste company, to collect and properly incinerate these products outside of the state of California.
Those interested in participating should pre-register by completing a questionnaire online at Legacy Registration Form or by scanning the QR code. Hardcopies of the registration can be acquired by contacting the Tulare County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office at 559-684-3352. Please submit this form by August 31st, 2022.
Note: this is not an empty container collection event; the containers must contain the product to be disposed of. If you are seeking to dispose of empty and properly cleaned containers, Tulare County has a free, recycle event September 19, 2022. Please contact our office for more information on that annual event.