BY ELLEN WALTON
Los Alamos County voter

Dear County Council Candidates, 

The residents of Los Alamos County have some practical problems that need to be addressed immediately: disposal of concrete and disposal of hazardous materials.  I would like to hear back from you on each of these particular waste problems that I have encountered of late:

1. Our county’s waste disposal facility, now known as the “Eco Station” no longer accepts any concrete from its residents.  For those who are hoping to re-do any stucco walls, concrete driveways, or just small landscaping projects and need to dispose of items with concrete in them, it seems there are no good choices.  We are left to haul these items somewhere out of sight and leave them, pile debris on our personal property, or put them bit by bit into roll carts that go to the Eco Station anyway.  These should not be the options we are left with.

2. Disposing of household hazardous wastes in general is now once a month on Fridays during the workday and rarely on a Saturday.  There is no hazardous waste drop-off in White Rock. The waste either ends up in our roll carts or sits around our houses and yards for months.  Many residents must work on Fridays and must wait for a rare Saturday collection.  For medication in the form of creams, inhalers, or autoinjectors with medication left in them, no one will take them, and neither the Eco Station staff nor the police can currently tell us the proper place to dispose of these items.  Again, we are left with putting them in our roll carts.

These are practical problems that need practical solutions and they are not new.    How will you address these waste disposal problems should you be elected to our County Council?  I hope you will share your answers publicly here.

Thank you for your willingness to run and to put forward your answers.