Do you have any unused prescriptions sitting in the medicine chest, or in your top bureau drawer on tucked in a kitchen cupboard?
If you do, you are like most people.
Mary E. Bowers, the superintendent of the Great Salt Bay Sanitary District, wants people to please, please, turn in old or expired medicines from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Fri., Nov. 20 at the Coastal Community Center, above the Subway Sandwich shop in Damariscotta or at the Boothbay Harbor Town Hall.
“It is so important to turn them in, because most folks get rid of old medicine by flushing them down the toilet or dumping them in the sink,” she said.
This means the medications might find their way into drinking water, which is not good, said LeeAnna Hutchings, the manager of the District’s wastewater division.
Flushing medications down the toilet or dumping them in the sink, in an area where there are sewers, allow the pharmaceuticals to find their way into treatment plants, which are not equipped to filter out the medications, Hutchings said.
For houses with septic systems, the medications end up in the ground water and could wind up in a well, either the homeowner’s, or a neighbor’s.
The medications can cause problems, Hutchings warned.
“Out west, there was a pond or stream where the outflow from a sewage system treatment system drained. In that pond or stream, scientists found that some of the male fish developed female characteristics and the female fish developed male characteristics,” she said.
The Great Salt Bay Sanitary District sends its treated water into the Damariscotta River not far from the town landing.
