Team effort solves problem

Perry Village ends up saving significant amount of money on removal, disposal of unwanted farm pesticides from barns

Perry Village has removed and disposed of about 24,000 pounds of bagged pesticides from three barns, but didn’t have to throw away tons of money to get the job done.

In fact, the village recently was able to get rid of those pesticides free of charge at an Operation Clean Sweep program sponsored by the Ohio Department of Agriculture. Operation Clean Sweep is a one-day event during which farmers or other agricultural land owners can drop off unwanted farm pesticides. The pesticides are then placed into secure containers and taken away by a tractor-trailer to be incinerated.

There is no cost to the farmers or agricultural land owners for the drop-off or disposal of the pesticides.

This year, the Ohio Department of Agriculture sponsored three Operation Clean Sweep events around the state, and one of them took place at Perry Coal and Feed in Perry Village. The business is located near the former Champion Farm site where pesticides, in their original bags, were discovered in three different barns.

Perry Village Mayor James Gessic estimated that the bags had been sitting in the barns for about 30 years.

The pesticides were granular herbicides and insecticides, said Tom deHaas, Ohio State University Extension — Lake County agricultural/natural resource educator.

Village Public Works Department

employees and deHaas teamed up to remove and repackage pesticides from three barns.

“Tom deHaas worked like a mule with those guys,” said Perry Village Public Works Superintendent Troy Hager.

At a May 14 Village Council meeting, Hager told council members and administrators that he had contacted deHaas for advice on how to safely remove and dispose of the pesticides.

“There were some relatively high-cost options of calling in a company and bagging (all of the pesticides) up and paying them to haul it away,” Hager said.

However, after deHaas confirmed that one of Ohio Department of Agriculture’s 2020 Clean Sweep events would be held in Lake County, village government leaders knew that they could at least

dispose of the pesticides and get them hauled away for free. And because the Clean Sweep program was taking place in Perry Village, it wouldn’t require a long drive by public works crews to reach the dropoff point.

The next challenge was getting the pesticides out of the barns and preparing them to be transported to Operation Clean Sweep. Fortunately, deHaas worked side-by-side with Perry’s public works employees, and used his agricultural expertise to provide guidance throughout the project.

Hager said safety also was a priority while handling the pesticides. All participants were outfitted in TyVek hazardous materials suits, and wore respirators, rubber gloves, eye protection and boots. DeHaas said the personal protective equipment kept the workers

safe not only from the pesticides, but also novel coronavirus.

Because of deterioration to the barn roofs over the years, some of the pesticide bags got wet and had split open, deHaas said. That moisture also turned some of the granular pesticide into a clumpy substance.

The cleanup crew scooped up all of the pesticide and put it into construction garbage bags, which were placed onto pallets. Perry Public Works crews then hauled the material to Perry Coal and Feed for Operation Clean Sweep.

After the bags arrived to Perry Coal and Feed, they were placed into boxes and sealed, and transferred to a tractor-trailer for a trip to the incinerator.

In all, 52,780 pounds of farm pesticides were collected during the Aug. 25 Operation Clean Sweep

event in Perry Village, deHaas said. Of that total, the pesticides from the Champion Farm barns weighed in at 24,000 pounds, or 2 tons.

DeHaas said the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s cost to have the pesticides from Operation Clean Sweep incinerated was $1.30 a pound. If Perry Village had done the project independently and was charged that same rate to incinerate the 24,000 pounds of pesticides, it would have cost $31,200.

Perry Village is responsible for the barns at the former Champion Farm because it has entered into an agreement to purchase the 150 acres of the property located within the community’s boundaries.

Perry Schools currently owns the entire 230-acre Champion Farm site, which also includes 80 acres in Perry Township that fronts Route 20. The township’s

section of the former horticultural nursery is being leased by the Perry Joint Economic Development District.

The former Champion Farm had been a bankowned property for seven years when the parcel was purchased by the Perry School District in 2017.

Perry Schools made the acquisition with the intent of redeveloping the land with a mix of primarily commercial, medical, office and/or light industrial uses. It’s hoped that these new tenants generate payroll revenue and strengthen the community’s tax base within the established Perry Joint Economic Development District, according to the Champion Farm Joint Land Study.

However, no new development has taken place at the former Champion Farm since the land study was unveiled in 2018.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY TOM DEHAAS Construction garbage bags are filled with granular pesticides that had been stored in their original bags for an estimated 30 years in a barn at the former Champion Farm in Perry Village.