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EPA grant helps Wyoming schools remove hazardous chemicals from labs

Release Date: 6/2/2005
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Denver -- Schools across Wyoming are getting safer due to an ongoing partnership between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) to assess, remove, dispose and prevent the future accumulation of dangerous chemicals in school laboratories.

Over the next two years, WDE will use a $52,000 EPA pollution prevention grant to help Wyoming school districts remove and dispose of thousands of pounds of undesirable chemicals from school laboratories. The initiative, which builds on existing WDE partnerships with school districts, is part of EPA’s Schools Chemical Cleanout Campaign.

“This is an exemplary partnership established to reduce risks posed by hazardous chemicals in Wyoming schools,” said Steve Tuber, EPA’s Assistant Regional Administrator in Denver. “The Wyoming Department of Education has been working hard to make schools safer for students and staff, and this EPA grant helps extend cleanout resources and expertise to schools that need assistance.”

The WDE program also requires school districts to match funding and implement best practices to reduce chemical inventories and limit the accumulation of dangerous chemicals in schools in the future. The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality provided assistance in preparing best practices guidelines.

WDE will use the EPA grant to fund chemical collection and disposal activities in Wyoming’s 48 school districts. EPA staff may also assist in inventorying and identifying hazardous chemicals for proper disposal at some schools. To date, more than 400 pounds of chemicals at three schools have been collected and sent to commercial facilities for proper disposal under the EPA grant. The hazardous chemicals removed included strong oxidizers like white phosphorus, and toxic substances like mercury, arsenic, sodium cyanide and potassium cyanide.

For more information on EPA’s Schools Chemical Cleanout Campaign visit: https://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/conserve/clusters/schools/index.htm

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