Unwanted Medication Collection Event Well Attended

More than 200 gallons collected from about 130 people

               CLINTON, CONNECTICUT, September 23, 2008 – Connecticut Water’s Rx for Safe Disposal event collected 205 gallons of unwanted medication from about 130 individuals who attended it on Saturday, September 20.  Held in cooperation with CVS/pharmacy and the State Department of Consumer Protection, Rx for Safe Disposal was free and open to customers and residents of the Connecticut Water’s 54 service towns, as well as residents in those towns where the company’s watersheds and water supplies are located.     

“We are pleased that so many people took advantage of the opportunity to properly dispose of their unwanted medication at Connecticut Water’s first medication collection event,” said Cindy Gaudino, Connecticut Water’s manager of Source Protection and Real Estate.  “We wanted to give our customers and other residents an environmentally sound way to dispose of these products.”

Those who dropped off their unwanted medication were able to stay in their cars and hand the medication to a volunteer, who would then bring it to a CVS pharmacist to be checked, sorted and put in containment drums for proper disposal.  Participants brought various items, with some dating back to the 1970s, demonstrating the need to provide residents with an option for disposal.    

While there is a very low risk of the presence of pharmaceuticals in public drinking water in Connecticut due to unique laws that prohibit public drinking water supply sources from being located downstream of waste discharges, the company held the event in response to ensure customers had a way to  properly dispose of these products in their homes.  

“Based on the response to Rx for Safe Disposal in the Shoreline region, we are considering hosting a second medication disposal event in the future at a different company location,” said Maureen Westbrook, Vice President of Customer and Regulatory Affairs.  “We believe this is a practical, meaningful response to the public’s concerns about the potential impacts of disposal of pharmaceutical products.”

Although it was not a requirement, Connecticut Water performed tests at two of its water treatment plants in April 2008, to determine if any pharmaceutically active compounds were present in the drinking water delivered to customers.  The company tested for 67 parameters and none of the compounds were detected at either treatment plant. These results, coupled with the 120 parameters routinely tested for, confirm the quality of the treatment and drinking water provided by Connecticut Water to its customers.

In addition to CVS/pharmacy and the State Department of Consumer Protection, Connecticut Water worked in partnership with the Connecticut River Estuary Regional Planning Agency, Tidewater Institute, Connecticut River Watershed Council, Rivers Alliance and the Farmington River Watershed Association to promote the event.  For more information visit www.ctwater.com or call Connecticut Water Customer Service at 1-800-286-5700, or Corinne Ewing at CVS/pharmacy, (401) 770-5085.

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Editor’s Note: Connecticut Water’s service and source protection towns are listed below.

Connecticut Water Company serves nearly 300,000 people in 54 towns in Connecticut. This program was open to residents in Connecticut Water’s service area or source protection towns as follows: Ashford, Avon, Beacon Falls, Bethany, Bolton, Brooklyn, Burlington, Canton, Chester, Clinton, Colchester, Columbia, Coventry, Deep River, East Granby, East Haddam, East Hampton, East Windsor, Ellington, Enfield, Essex, Farmington, Griswold, Guilford, Haddam, Hebron, Killingly, Killingworth, Lebanon, Madison, Manchester, Mansfield, Middlebury, Naugatuck, New Hartford, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Plainfield, Plymouth, Portland, Prospect, Somers, South Windsor, Stafford, Stonington, Suffield, Thomaston, Thompson, Tolland, Union, Vernon, Voluntown, Waterbury, Westbrook, Willington, Windsor Locks and Woodstock.