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PARKERSBURG - Hundreds of people lined up their vehicles Saturday, despite a gray sky and constant rain, to dispose of paints, thinners and other household chemicals during the Wood County Hazardous Waste Cleanup.

The free event was held at Erickson All-Sport Facility in south Parkersburg and was sponsored by DuPont Washington Works and the Wood County Solid Waste Authority.

SWA director John Reed said the event accepted pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, algaecides, old gasoline, old medication, florescent lights, batteries, cleaning liquids, paint, paint thinner, used oil, used antifreeze and unknown liquids.

Reed said it would be several days before he had figures on the amount of materials collected, but organizers counted 1,121 vehicles which came to Erickson for the five-hour program, which ran from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.

Vienna resident Bobby Adair said he saw a newspaper ad about the dropoff and thought it was an "excellent" service. Saturday was the first time he had brought anything to a hazardous waste cleanup event.

"I wanted to get rid of some things that were no longer of use to me or my father-in-law" including old paint and some household chemicals, he said.

"This keeps them out of the places they shouldn't be," Adair said.

Becky Tichy, also of Vienna, said she had a lot of things to dispose of at the dropoff, including paint thinner, stains, pesticides and others. It was the first time she had taken advantage of the service.

"It's great, really great," she said.

Reed said he was surprised by Saturday's large turnout, especially with many people bringing paint. The SWA holds a general household cleanup event each spring, the last one in April, where paint was accepted. A lot of paint was collected in April and Reed expected that to mean less paint would be brought in Saturday, especially since five 30-foot containers of paint were collected in the spring. Despite that, he estimated about 90 percent of what was being disposed of Saturday was paint.

"This one being very specific, just for hazardous materials, I kind of expected a smaller turnout and then, of course with the weather," he said, referring to the rainy sky which lasted all morning. "Even Clean Harbors, the people operating it, were surprised about the turnout. We've had a solid line here since 6:30 this morning," Reed said of the cars waiting to pull up and have their items unloaded Saturday.

Reed said one reason for the high turnout may be because the last hazardous waste cleanup conducted by Wood County SWA was four years ago. It might have been longer before another was held, but Reed said DuPont contacted the authority and offered to cover the costs.

The difference in cost is the main reason the SWA can hold an annual spring cleanup, but not do the hazardous waste event every year, Reed said. It costs about $37,000 to conduct the household waste cleanup, but the cost of the hazardous waste event can be between $60,000 and $70,000.

"It's quite expensive. Without DuPont's help, we just wouldn't be able to pull it off," he said of Saturday's event.

The funding provided by DuPont should be enough to hold another hazardous waste cleanup, depending on the final cost, and Reed said he will wait to see whether to hold it again next year or skip a year before holding another one.