NORWAY – Norway and Paris saw a record response to an annual household hazardous waste collection day in September, driving hazardous waste disposal costs $3,000 over budget.

Norway-Paris Solid Waste budgeted $1,000 for the disposal of hazardous materials and chemicals after the fall collection, General Manager Alison McCrady said Wednesday. But this year’s collection cost over $4,000.

“It’s a shock, but in a way it’s a good thing because it’s not in the garbage where it’s going to harm me or anyone else who works with the garbage,” McCrady said. She pointed out that the collections were taken only from private households, not local businesses.

In 2002, McCrady said, Norway and Paris turned in about 25 five-gallon units of hazardous waste. In 2003, that number rose to 39 five-gallon units.

The 2004 budget was set to handle about 39 units again. However, McCrady said, 174 five-gallon units were turned in.

Sam Morris, a planner with the state’s Waste Management and Recycling Program, said the budget crunch resulting from September’s turnout may be an expensive problem, but “it’s a good problem.”

Maine, Morris said, has about 125 or 150 municipalities that hold or participate in the collection days every year or so. “Back in the late ’80s, there were maybe three or four events in a particular year.”

But Norway and Paris’ recent jump in participation was unprecedented, said Ferg Lea of the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments, which helps to arrange the annual collections.

“We’re kind of unsure why they got this response from Norway-Paris at all,” Lea said. “In general, we had less participation from what I’m going to call the outlying towns.”

Even the Lewiston-Auburn area saw a decline in participation this year, he said.

McCrady attributes the day’s success to her advertising campaign, which included local cable ads and a piece in a local newspaper that asked, “Got chemicals?”

She doesn’t plan on holding off on ads next year, either. Instead, McCrady said, Norway-Paris Solid Waste will likely shift more money to the household hazardous waste budget.

In the meantime, McCrady and members of the Norway-Paris Solid Waste board of directors will be appealing to Norway and Paris for some money to cover their bill.

The hazardous waste collection, she said, helps to protect the health, safety and welfare of the townspeople.