TAMUNING, GUAM - Following Typhoon Mawar, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and their contractors committed to visit every Guam public school, in addition to other education-related facilities, to help assess the amounts and different types of typhoon-impacted hazardous waste and electronic waste (e-waste) needing proper disposal. All 41 public schools on Guam have now been assessed for hazardous waste and e-waste, and all of that material has now been picked up and removed from the schools.
Coordination with the Guam Department of Education and individual school administrators was essential to USEPA and their contractors completing this work under a Federal Emergency Management Agency mission assignment for hazardous waste removal. “Working with the Guam Department of Education and school administrators has been vital to our efforts,” said USEPA Incident Commander, Chris Myers. “We are truly appreciative of the local and federal partnership to clear hazardous waste and e-waste from schools so they can prepare for reopening.” After visiting each school for assessments, USEPA and their contractors returned to load materials onto trucks for transport to debris collection sites for sorting and transfer to USEPA’s staging area in Barrigada. At the staging area, hazardous waste and e-waste is sorted and combined with materials from the collection sites at Ypao/Oka Point in Hagatana, Fairgrounds in Barrigada, and Dededo, then safely loaded into shipping containers for eventual transport to the mainland. Common hazardous waste materials picked up at schools included paint, cleaning chemicals, and chemistry lab supplies. Common forms of e-waste included computers, monitors, light bulbs, and solar panels. Learn more about EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
Source: US EPA