Table EIR 3. Hazardous waste incident, pesticide-oil mixture contamination of 

 river in Lee County (Herndon and Teaf 1978). 



Personal damage: Two U.S. Coast Guard personnel and one Florida Department 

 of Environmental Regulation (DER) lab technician became ill during clean-up 

 and testing procedures following the pesticide spill. 



Environmental damage: A water-oil pesticide mixture reached the Orange 

 River causing an unknown amount of damage to aquatic life. Evidence of 

 this damage includes some small shrimp killed and probably significant (but 

 undetectable due to sinking or washing downriver after death) numbers of 

 fish killed . 



Economic damage: Cost was approximately $15,000 for commercial crews employed 

 in the clean-up operations . 



Cause of problem: Lee County Mosquito Control personnel, while cleaning 

 and flushing tanks of an aerial sprayer, allowed rinsewater to discharge 

 into a ditch adjacent to the facility. Heavy rains subsequently flushed 

 this pesticide waste into the Orange River. 



Type and quantity of hazardous waste: Approximately 500 gal of oilwater 

 pesticides (e.g., Baytex, Cythion, Malathion) . 



Date of incident: Early December (before December 12) 1977. 



Location: Lee County Mosquito Control facility. Fort Myers. 



Remedial action: In late March, 1978 Lee County Mosquito Control signed a 

 consent order with the Florida DER agreeing to perform certain tasks in lieu 

 of a penalty payment. This Consent Order directed Lee County Mosquito 

 Control to: 1) develop a prevention and control contingency plan to avoid a 

 recurrence of the problem; 2) implement this program; and 3) conduct a 

 three-year study of arthropods in the Orange River to evaluate them as 

 potential biological controls of Hydrilla. 



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