Dispose Your Household Hazardous Waste Today

When residents begin to get their homes ready for the upcoming winter season, they may find household materials that may pose a hazardous risk to the environment and public safety. The fall is a great time to get rid of these unwanted item in a safe and easy way. Unusable or unwanted chemicals are considered household hazardous waste when their disposal poses an environmental or health threat. When disposed of in the garbage, down the drain or on the ground, some household chemicals can threaten our environment, harm garbage collectors or hurt you. 

Most household hazardous wastes are hazardous because they are flammable, corrosive or toxic. Characteristic words indicate the type of hazard posed by a product - flammable, corrosive or toxic. Look for the signal words on the label. Signal words - caution, warning, danger, poison - indicate the product's degree of hazard. To help protect the environment and your health, choose the least hazardous product to get the job done. For more information contact Kris Larson, Water Resource Specialist, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

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AI Helps Tell Anoka County's Groundwater Story

I've been dabbling with how to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to improve productivity at ACD. Using ChatGPT, I've found a tool that can help generate an outline to serve as a jumping off point when starting a report or project plan. Recently, groundwater contamination problems have been popping up in the news. Within two Andover neighborhoods, residents with contaminated private wells are reduced to only using bottled water until they can hook up to city water. The plume of contamination below their homes, now plaguing them, will certainly continue its journey, ominously passing under neighborhoods in its path. Those hooked up to city water supplies will be fine. Those on wells, may be in for an unsettling surprise.

Where does AI come in? I asked ChatGPT to write a short somber poem about groundwater pollution. Here you go…



Beneath the soil, where secrets flow,
Groundwater whispers, tainted below.
Pollution seeps, a silent intrusion,
Nature's tears in liquid confusion.
Once pure, now stained with human's trace,
A solemn grave for life's embrace.
Quietly it suffers, unseen and still,
Groundwater mourns, a poisoned rill.


Contact Chris Lord, District Manager, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

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Isanti 5th Grade Conservation Day

On a cool and cloudy May morning, ACD participated in Isanti Conservation Day, an annual event designed to teach students about natural resource stewardship. Approximately 475 fifth graders were given a chance to get outside for a morning to learn about the natural world around them, and how to protect it, by rotating through stations scattered throughout Becklin Homestead Park. ACD collected a myriad of live aquatic invertebrates from local streams to give the students a hands-on way to learn about the unseen creatures that live in their favorite water bodies.

Each group examined trays containing wriggling nymphs of mayflies, damselflies, and dragonflies, case-building caddis fly larvae, freshwater shrimp, snails, and more. They excitedly gathered around their tables to observe the activity in their trays and tallied how many kinds of invertebrates they were able to identify from a provided list. This led to discussions on what the diversity and types of creatures found in the water could tell them about river health. Looking at their lists, students learned that they could make inferences about water quality based on the pollution tolerance of the invertebrates that they found. Each session was wrapped up by sharing ideas on actions and practices that they could take to protect the health of their local rivers. The event was engaging for the fifth graders and provided them with new perspectives on how people can learn about water quality.  

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