The Missouri Rural Water Association is hosting a prescription drug "take back" event at several locations in Callaway County Saturday.
During the event the MRWA will accept prescription drugs, no questions asked, for proper disposal through the Drug Enforcement Agency. A well-practiced trend of disposing prescription drugs is through landfill or flushing the drugs down the toilet, Eric Fuchs, a water protection specialist with the MRWA, said.
However, water treatment plants don't have the tools
necessary to remove the drugs from the water so it goes back out into the drinking water. Pills that are disposed of in landfills get back into the environment through ground water in the soil, according to information from the MRWA.
"In a nut shell they can't remove the drugs during the water treatment process," Fuchs said. "The best way is to keep it from going in the water
in the first place and if we dis- pose of them properly it will keep them out of the drinking water."
Medications such as antibiotics, mood stabilizers and sex hormones have been found in drinking water supplies available to 41 million Americans, according to the MRWA and traces of other pharmaceuticals have been found in underground water supplies in 24 states.
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. residents can take prescription drugs for proper disposal at Callaway #1 Water District in Holts Summit, Callaway #2 Water District in Fulton and the Grand Prairie Baptist Church in Auxvasse.
Officers or agents with the DEA will be present at each drop-off location and will take the unused or unwanted medication back to the DEA office where they will be secured in the drug evidence vault, DEA Special Agent Karin Caito said in an email.