BARNSTABLE – At a recent meeting by the Barnstable County Commissioners, the Commission hosted Hazardous Materials Environmental Specialist Kalliope Chute to provide an update on the County’s Household Hazardous Waste Program.
It was part of its ongoing recognition of National County Government Month.
According to Chute, Cape Cod hosts more collection events than anywhere else in the state, with 24 scheduled collection events each year.
The collection is free to all residents within their designated zones, serving all 4,300 small businesses on Cape and aiding fire departments in disposing of Aqueous Film Forming Foam.
“Cape Cod has an aquifer, an underground storage of water where 100% of our drinking water comes from and is a more vulnerable type of aquifer in that it is unconfined, meaning that it doesn’t have a barrier that protects it from above-ground activities, or even items that are flushed down our drains,” said Chute.
“All of our water on Cape Cod is connected,” she said. “We are, in fact, communities connected by water. Everything that happens in our aquifer happens in our ponds and lakes, streams, rivers, embayments, and harbors.”
The meeting also announced the acceptance of a $25,000 donation to the County’s Human Rights Advisory Commission to create the John L. Reed Memorial Human Rights Fund in honor of the late activist.
The fund will be used to promote social justice and human rights advocacy, education, and outreach in the region.
The Board also authorized the shared use of wildfire training equipment between the Cotuit Fire Department and Barnstable County.
Finally, the Department of Human Services introduced Kristina Whiton-O’Brien as the new SHINE Director.
Whiton-O’Brien brings three decades of experience as a social worker to the program, which provides counseling and assistance to Cape residents with Medicare.
To view upcoming meetings by the Board of Commissioners, click here.
By, Matthew Tomlinson, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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