Push on in Sonoma County to pass pill disposal to drug companies

Cities up and down the Russian River watershed are urging Sonoma County to pass a local law requiring drug companies to pay for a system to collect unwanted or expired medicines and dispose of them in a way that is safer for residents and the environment.

Six Sonoma County cities have signed letters urging the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to study enacting such a countywide ordinance. The Santa Rosa City Council is set to take up the matter Tuesday night and two other cities, Sonoma and Petaluma, are considering the issue.

If approved, such a law would shift the burden for disposal of prescription medicines, which can harm aquatic environments, from local governments to the private sector.

“It’s inequitable because we’re picking up the tab for this work while the most important stakeholder in this process, the pharmaceutical industry, is not part of the solution as of yet,” Cotati City Councilman Mark Landman told Santa Rosa’s Board of Public Utilities last month.

Sonoma and Mendocino counties have a publicly funded but rag-tag medicine collection system that has kept 90,000 pounds of drugs out of landfills since 2007. The 11 cities and other government agencies in the Russian River Watershed Association fund and manage the program.

But the high cost - amounting to about $1.1 million to date - fragmented management responsibility, and sharp decrease in number of drop-off sites have left the program struggling.

“We have a problem with our system,” Landman told the BPU. “Our little patchwork is down to some independent pharmacies, a few independent medical locations (and) police stations.”

That network has been weakened by a combination of big-name retailers like Costco and Walgreens pulling out for liability reasons and, more recently, new state regulations requiring closer monitoring of disposal sites. Other local businesses such as hardware stores and supermarkets have found it harder to participate.

There are 21 approved disposal boxes in the two counties, but many of them, like police stations and the Laguna wastewater treatment plant, are not places one would think to go to drop off medicine, Landman said. An array of medical facilities and retailers offer safe disposal options outside the program.

The effort is viewed as important for several reasons. For one, it reduces the likelihood of children or young people overdosing or abusing prescription medications.

An average of 96 kids under 14 years old were treated every year in Sonoma County for accidental overdosing on medicine from 2008 to 2011, according to Andy Rodgers, executive director of Russian River Watershed Association.

Getting access to medicines for sale on the black market is also a common motive in burglaries.

But the main reason for encouraging proper disposal of medication is environmental. Pharmaceuticals that are flushed down the toilet often are not fully removed from wastewater, raising concerns about the impact on drinking water and sensitive wildlife.

While there are currently no requirements for wastewater systems to remove such substances, state water quality regulators have told city officials that it is likely such “contaminants of emerging concern” will likely be regulated in the future.

The idea of shifting the responsibility for operating safe drug disposal sites from local governments to the private sector has been growing since May, when Alameda County won its long legal battle with drug companies over its 2012 law.

Drug trade groups argued disposal in landfills is safe and efficient and that most pharmaceutics enter the waste stream through urine, not through unused medications being flushed. They have raised fair trade arguments, as well.

Counties that have passed or pursued such ordinances this year include San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Marin and San Mateo counties, according to Landman.

Canada has also been operating a nationwide system for more than 20 year that costs about one cent per prescription, Landman said. And so-called “extended producer responsibility” programs already exist for other products, like paint.

“This is not a cutting-edge idea. It is nothing that radical,” he said.

The members of the BPU unanimously approved urging the council to authorize Mayor John Sawyer to send the letter of support.

BPU member Bill Arnone said the idea “makes sense on many different levels.”

“It relieves this county of a very large financial burden, and places it on the backs of the party who is best positioned to bear the burden and who is free to raise the cost to cover that burden so that the purchase price covers every element of the product from research and development, sale, shipping, delivery and disposal,” he said.

If Sonoma County approves such an ordinance, Rodgers said he expects Mendocino County will follow suit.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.