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Re: Big Cap




From: 	Norman F. Stanley[SMTP:nfs-at-midcoast-dot-com]
Sent: 	Sunday, August 10, 1997 10:28 PM
To: 	Tesla List
Subject: 	Re: Big Cap

At 11:49 PM 7/28/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>From: 	DR.RESONANCE[SMTP:DR.RESONANCE-at-next-wave-dot-net]
>Sent: 	Monday, July 28, 1997 9:08 PM
>To: 	Tesla List
>Subject: 	Re: Big Cap
>
>Note to Norman:
>
>You absolutely don't want to call your state DEP or Dept. of Natural
>Resources.  They will ask you if you have them and then if you say yes they
>will send you a nice polite letter telling you to legally dispose of them
>within (insert usually 30 days here) or they will come to pick them up --
>of course they will charge you about $300 per cap to legally dispose of
>them.  Say you don't want to pay -- no problem -- they just attach some
>sort of lien of your property, et al.  The bottom line here is if you have
>them be very careful who you tell about it.  By the way the above scenario
>did actually happen to someone I know in Minn and it cost him $3,500!!!!
>
>DR.RESONANCE-at-next-wave-dot-net
>
>----------

Tnanks for the cautionary tip.  How _does_ one legally dispose of them
without going through the DEP?  A hazardous waste disposal company?  Would
that be more expensive than dealing with the bureaucrats. These are
questions I'm confronted with.

I have in the past read a couple of horror stories along this line.  In one
case a load of caps was surreptitiously dumped on a landowner's property,
and it cost him $900 to have them hauled off.  In another, a fellow was
heavily fined for burying a transformer on his land.  OTOH, a news item
showed a photo of caps that a local power company had left at the dump.
The authorities decided it was OK to leave them there.  YMMV.

I shouldn't think it would be illegal to possess PCBs, as long as they
eventually were disposed of legally, so informing the DEP shouldn't
obligate you to take immediate action.  But the sloppy ways regulations are
drafted, I wouldn't bet the farm.

I've considered various impractical (and doubtless illegal) schemes to
destroy the PCBs--incinerating in an electric arc or reducing with metallic
sodium.  I'll probably end up paying the tab.  It's steep, but probably
fair, considering the absurd lengths they go to in handling toxic waste.
It just gravels me to pay a hundred fold what they originally cost. 

IMUO, the toxicity of PCBs is vastly overrated.  In years past I've used
Aroclors for high temperature baths with no problems other than the stuff
tended to condense in the hood ductwork and accumulate dust to make messy
gunk.

Odd how these problems sneak up on you; in the not too distant past surplus
houses, like Fair Radio Sales, were still selling those caps.  I'll bet
there are still tons of them in warehouses.

There: I've unburdened my soul, and feel (a little) better.

Norm