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| Post Number: 11
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Frustrated 
Group: Members
Posts: 226
Joined: Feb. 2004
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Posted on: May 05 2004,10:49 am |
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I think in most places there are significant fines for dumping toxics such as oil or paint thinner in the sewer system - call the cops and city engineers office, especially right after the stuff is dumped so they can come and see it.
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| Post Number: 12
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Jen99
Group: Members
Posts: 7
Joined: Feb. 2004
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Posted on: May 05 2004,11:48 am |
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or maybe you should just tell him that it is not only illegal but it is polluting everyone's environment? Either tell him to his face or put a note on his door. If he still continues to break to law then call the authorities.
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| Post Number: 13
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GEOKARJO
Google This!!!
Group: Members
Posts: 7799
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: May 05 2004,12:01 pm |
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Chances are since it has not rained the paint is dried in the sewer and still visable.
The proper way I was informed by waste systems to dispose of paint is to dump it on a 4x8 sheet of plywood or similiar recepticle and let it dry then it would become construction demo.
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| Post Number: 14
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jimhanson
Group: Moderator
Posts: 8491
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: May 05 2004,2:12 pm |
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Pouring paint down the drain--when the drain has a sign on it--is not only illegal and stupid--it is willfully disregarding the law.
Geo mentions a legal way of getting rid of old paint. I'm amazed (I shouldn't be) of ways the waste disposal industry, and their regulators--DO FIND LEGAL to get rid of controlled substances. In many cases, it doesn't eliminate the toxic chemicals--it just dances around the law.
Similar to Geo's experience of spraying it on a piece of plywood, I've had people say "spray it on cardboard"--then recycle or landfill the cardboard". I've had refuse haulers tell me to "leave the paint in cans with the lid off for a couple of months, THEN, when it dries, it will be OK for us to take it".
The sign company formerly located near here (now out of business) used to set up a spray gun outside on a windy day to atomize the excess paint, and let it blow away, on the advice of a State inspector.
A crop sprayer I know once asked a State Inspector (now retired) how to get rid of the mixture of chemicals from his State-designed loading pit. "You're a crop sprayer, aren't you?" asked the inspector. "Put it in your airplane, take it to 5000 feet, and do with it what it was intended to do--SPRAY IT!".
We had a student here a few years ago--brought his expensive new airplane in to learn how to fly it on instruments. I asked him what business he was in--"Asbestos removal" (in Wisconsin). I reckoned that business must be good to afford an airplane like that, but that I supposed that he had a lot of expense in disposing of the asbestos. "Nah", he replied, "I just take it out and bury it in an old gravel pit--I've got a liner in the pit--all perfectly legal--and I can charge whatever I want to charge, because nobody knows what to do with it and doesn't want to take the responsibility".
Kind of like dumping garbage. When every town had a dump, and garbage dumping was free, you didn't see trash bags of garbage dumped on the side of the road. When getting rid of garbage is tightly controlled--and expensive--the incidents of illegally dumped garbage increase--increasing the tax costs for everybody.
The thing each of these examples has in common--they didn't really CONTAIN or ELIMINATE the pollution--they just found ways to comply with the law. Did the law make anything better? Are we any better off than when we just used to incinerate old paint?
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"If you want to anger a Conservative, tell him a lie. If you want to anger a LIBERAL, tell him the TRUTH!"
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