Assessing the Risk of Groundwater Contamination from

Farm and Home Waste Management

Worksheet 5

Consider the variety of products commonly used around the homestead — paints, solvents, oils, cleaners, wood preservatives, batteries, adhesives, pesticides. Also consider the amount of these products which go unused or are thrown away. Some common disposal practices can create an unsafe environment around the home and may contaminate groundwater.

Small, unusable amounts are often spilled, buried, dumped, or flushed onto rural property. Minimize the amounts of these substances you use on your homestead and follow proper disposal practices to reduce both health risks and the potential for groundwater contamination. Most farmers are familiar with the hazards of pesticides they use in their farm operation, but they and other rural dwellers may be less aware of the hazards of other chemicals that make many tasks around the homestead easier or more efficient.

Improper use of some products may cause toxic health effects. Improper storage may allow chemicals to leak, causing potentially dangerous chemical reactions, toxic health effects, or groundwater contamination. Improper disposal can allow chemicals to enter directly into drinking water through surface water or groundwater.

Your drinking water is least likely to be contaminated by hazardous wastes if you buy only the products you need and use, store, and dispose of them properly. Use up, reuse, or recycle products whenever possible. Proper disposal practices are essential to avoid contamination that could affect the water supplies and health of your family and neighbors.

The goal of Home·A·Syst is to help you protect the groundwater that supplies your drinking water.

• It will take you step-by-step through your farm and home waste management practices.
  
  
• It will rank your activities according to how they might affect the groundwater that provides your drinking water supplies.
  
  
• It will provide you with easy-to-understand rankings that will help you analyze the risk level of your farm and home waste management practices.
  
  
• It will help you determine which of your practices are reasonably safe and effective, and which practices might require modification to better protect your drinking water.

These terms may help you make more accurate assessments when completing worksheet 5. They may also help clarify some of the terms used in fact sheet 5.

Conditionally exempt small quantity generator: A dangerous waste generator who generates less than 220 lbs. of dangerous waste per month, or accumulates or stores less than 220 lbs. of dangerous waste at their place of business.

Dangerous waste: State term which includes all federally-regulated hazardous wastes, plus additional wastes that are regulated in Washington State due to toxicity, persistence, or carcinogenicity. Dangerous wastes fall into two categories — either "DW" or "EHW" — and typically become regulated when more than 220 lbs. are produced per month (or more than half of a 55-gallon drum).

Dump: A local or on-farm solid waste disposal area that does not meet regulations, is not covered, is not designed to prevent leaching, and offers little groundwater protection.

Dangerous waste: Those wastes that are dangerous, but not extremely hazardous.

Extremely hazardous waste: Those dangerous wastes that are extremely hazardous because of their greater threat to human health and the environment.

Hazardous waste: Any solid waste with certain properties that could pose dangers to human health or the environment (such as spent solvents, ink sludges, or cyanide wastes). This term is federal in origin, and covers all wastes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers hazardous.

Household hazardous waste collection program: A special program in which a community collects waste for reuse, recycling, or shipment to disposal in a specially constructed hazardous waste landfill or destruction in an approved incinerator.

Incinerator: A combustion device specifically engineered to burn solid waste. Unit should be approved by appropriate authority.

Licensed (approved) landfill: A waste disposal site specifically designed to protect groundwater that meets current state standards.

Moderate risk waste: Dangerous waste that is exempt from most state and federal regulations because it is generated in households, or by businesses in quantities typically less than 220 lbs. per month (or about half of a 55-gallon drum).

On-farm disposal: Any method of burning, dumping, or land spreading of wastes on the farm. Also includes use of the septic system for disposal. These are not recommended practices for disposing of hazardous waste.

Recycling: Reusing or reclaiming a waste material.

Solid waste: Any discarded material (solid, liquid, or gas) that has been abandoned, is naturally waste-like, is stockpiled before recycling, or is reused in a manner constituting disposal (such as application of oil for dust control).

Step 1: In the table below, summarize your risk scores by checking the appropriate box for each risk category you answered on this worksheet.

Step 2: Look over your rankings for individual activities:

• High risk practices (1's) pose a high risk of polluting groundwater.
  
  
• Moderate-to-high risk practices (2's) are inadequate protection in many circumstances.
  
  
• Low-to-moderate risk practices (3's) provide reasonable groundwater protection.
  
  
• Low risk practices (4's) are ideal; should be your goal despite cost and effort.

Any shaded rankings require immediate attention. Some concerns you can take care of right away; others could be major or costly projects, requiring planning and prioritizing before you take action. The long-term goal of the Home·A·Syst program is to improve homestead practices and structures, so that they are classed as low risk. Activities classed as low risk generally reflect best management practices.

Transfer any activities that you ranked in the shaded areas in step 1 to the "High-Risk Activities" on pages 2-3 of worksheet 12.

Step 3: Read fact sheet 8, Improving Farm and Home Waste Management, if you haven't already. Consider how you might modify your homestead practices to better protect your drinking water.

The Homestead Assessment System is a cooperative project of Washington State University Cooperative Extension, Washington Department of Ecology, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region X.

Home·A·Syst team members: Christopher F. Feise and Edward B. Adams, WSU Cooperative Extension Water Quality Coordinators; James D. LaSpina, Homestead Assessment System Project Associate.

Farm and Home Waste Management Technical Reviewers: Enid Cox, WSU Cooperative Extension; Jerry Stonebridge, Sr., Washington Onsite Association; Karen Paugh, Yakima Health District; Cheryl Freeman, Inland Empire Public Lands Council; Richard Granberg, Washington Department of Ecology; Mark Nedrow and Suzanne Tarr, Yakima Public Works Department.

Adapted for Washington from material developed by the Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Kansas Extension Services and Farm·A·Syst Programs. Washington Home·A·Syst development was supported by the National Farmstead Assessment Program.

Information derived from Home·A·Syst worksheets is intended only to provide general information and recommendations to rural dwellers regarding their own homestead practices. It is not the intent of this educational program to keep records of individual results.