Any one living in rural areas that has an effective means of preventing people from dumping trash, old furniture, appliances etc along back roads? I am sick of it! I have talked to my county commissioner and he offers no suggestions at all. I am willing to head up a group to work on this problem, but I sure would like to hear from anyone else that experiences this problem for ideas to get us started.

-- C.A. Hall (carle@earthlink.net), March 05, 2001

Answers

I recommend starting off by talking with your County Attorney. Their may be laws on the books your County Sheriff can enforce when notified. In this county, guys in the County Jail are taken out on litter patrols to pick up stuff like this and take it to the appropriate disposal place. If the road is on private land, you may have a trespassing issue.

With the number of beer cans and bottles I find in my pastures along the road I sometimes think the girls are having beer blasts without inviting me.

I doubt this is an issue unique to your area, so please keep us informed.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), March 05, 2001.

You must be from NC! People do it here all the time and we have a recycling center in every little community. Good luck!

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), March 05, 2001.

Yes, find out the local laws first ~ your county attorney is a good place to start for that, but there may be others who will know the local laws or atleast be able to direct you to where you can find them ~ county clerk? JP? Even if the dump is on private land, you still may be able to do something about it ~ in my area, there's a law that says that you can't dump garbage within 50 feet of a public road.

It sounds like the dump you're talking about is pretty big. Appliances? Ouch! The best way I've found to keep people from dumping in an area that's already established as a "dump" is to clean it up and post signs ~ that's tantamount to turning on a light and watching the roaches scatter. Since you've hit a brick wall with your county commissioner, maybe you can contact probation officers in your area for "volunteers" ~ some people are sentenced to probation along with community service hours, some of which they could spend helping you. Or maybe contact a local construction company who has heavy equipment ~ offer to take before and after pictures to go with a testimonial from you that they can use in advertising. Or how about just rounding up a bunch of your neighbors (preferably big guys with trucks and trailers) and attacking it one Saturday? You could put a jar out at the local store to take donations for dump fees, gas, gatorade and maybe have enough left over for brisket and a keg at your place after you all are done! You might get lucky and can coordinate all the above in one day ~ that'll get the job done quick.

While you're cleaning, have everyone look for anything with names and addresses on it (letters or bills?) that you can use as evidence in case you can prosecute. Keep all of it that you find, even if you find 27 letters with the same name, and give them to the cops or county attorney. If you can't prosecute, I wonder if you can call your local newspaper and have them do a story on your cleanup efforts maybe with a mention of all the names you found on stuff? If they're not comfortable listing names, maybe you can atleast get them to quote you; "I've given a box full of letters with people's names and addresses on them to the county attorney and he's trying to find out what legal recourse can be taken against them." That oughta' make any future dumpers think twice.

Whatever you do, good luck!

-- Wingnut (wingnut@moment.net), March 05, 2001.

Gosh, if everyone stops the illegal dumping, where are us dump pickers going to shop? They won't let us shop at the legal dumps! These places are my most valuable natural resource, next to horse and chicken poop.

Don't bother cleaning up the places and hauling it away. This will only encourage them to continue dumping there. Prosecution cannot happen without the consent of the victim, so the landowner has to want to bother to press charges. It is amazing to me how many people use illegal dumps and then leave their names and addresses all over the place. Do collect envelopes, prescription bottles and other evidence of identity if the property owner agrees to prosecute.

How about some preventive measures? Is there a low cost municipal dump within a reasonable driving distance? Does it cost an arm and a leg to get rid of dead appliances? Perhaps you need to bug your county commissioner about getting a local dump or a low cost transfer station that people can afford to use. If a person has to drive 60 miles in a pick-up to pay $20. to get rid of a dead appliance, they are gonna use a back road dump.

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), March 05, 2001.

Right now out on the main road is a couch, (actually on the funny side a croup of squirrels were playing on it the other day) my son will take it to the dump this weekend, it really is the only way of dealing with stuff like this. Teaching your kids not to litter is the best start. If I do see full bags of trash I will go through it and try to find anything with "YOUR" address on it, then I take it to the Justice of the Peace, who contacts the folks to pick up their trash or get fines for littering. Between my animal patrols and this, guess folks must think I am a buzy body? :) We have a hwy cleanup program around us, which is done by private citizens mostly, though once in awhile you will see folks who are doing community service. This is exactly the thing convict's should be doing. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), March 05, 2001.

Wingnut and all... You have given me some good ideas to get started. I especially like getting together afterwards for a sharing of a meal, and the satisfaction of getting something accomplished. I will begin right away with the county attorney's office to see what if any laws we may have in our area that are backed by a little "bite". I live by a lake area with lots of visitors in the warm months. Littering by locals certainly doesn't discourage visitors to the area. Talk about beer cans!! If I was a collector for $$$ I would be rich!! Thanks again.

-- C. A. Hall (carle@earthlink.net), March 05, 2001.

All of the above.... and post a big official looking sign with an exorbitantly high priced fine for dumping. Post something that LOOKS like a camera along with it.

And, if all else fails....

I posted a sign and fake camera, but it didn't work too well. So, in addition, I posted another sign. Its a picture of a stick figure holding his hands in the air, and another stick figure holding a very large shotgun... Caption reads: "Persons caught dumping on my property will NOT be prosecuted." That worked.

Course I wouldn't do it, but I would like to sometimes......

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), March 05, 2001.

The problem by us is the dump costs an arm and a leg , so lots of people dump then the town cleans it up .

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), March 05, 2001.

Raleigh County, WV has just instaled hidden video cameras with motion sensors at illegal dump sites and are planning to move them them to differemt sites throughout the county. Hope they smile when they dump the trash, $1,000.00 fine and up to 1 year in jail.

-- Terri Perry (teperry@stargate.net), March 06, 2001.

I just don't understand why people are so lazy that they throw out trash on their way to thier homes or wherever. It's really sickening to see this stuff all over the place. When my kids and I go for wlks on our back road, if we see bottles and cans we collect them and take them in forthe return money. Lots of people here do not like taking furniture to the local dump as it casts $10. And if you don't seperate the wood from the cloth and the metal sprngs from it all your charged more. I am finally gettng used to washing my trash before I take it to the dump. If it goes there dirty they make you takeit back. I like the shotgun sign idea!!

-- michelle (tsjheath@ainop.com), March 06, 2001.

I spent 12 years on the town board of a rural ny township. Every couple of years this one particular road would have a rash of dumping. After a while it would end and our highway crew would go and clean up the mess. We passed several laws with $150 fines but that didn't seem to deter anyone that had a notion to dump as they never seemed to get caught. On another road onetime I remember the State Police caught a fella red handed dumping a truckload of old bicycles and parts. My opinion is there isn't much you can do except hope for a cure for ignorance.

-- Peter (pdfitz@mkl.com), March 06, 2001.

Just a thought, but if you go to all the effort to get the name and address of the "perps", instead of dropping the "evidence" off at the local Sherriff or JP, why not toss it in their own yard. (the perp not the Sherriff). And gee, wouldn't it be a shame if the bag "accidently" opened on impact? Just a thought. John

-- John D in PA (mrmopar@penn.com), March 06, 2001.

John, my mom did that to somebody when I was a kid and we lived up in the woods. Some folks drove through our driveway and dropped a big bag of garbage in our yard. My mom wrote down their license number, then asked the local deputy to run it for an address. She let it set in the sun for a few more days before sending it, in a well sealed box, by UPS to San Jose. And yes, she did put our return address on it.

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), March 07, 2001.

Make sure that you look to authorities that you are making an official effort to stop these people. In our county they resurrected an old law against junkyards. They are fining people large amounts per day for "running a junkyard without a permit". Then the fine amasses and they foreclosed on the peoperties (two so far) and then billed the landowners for the cleanup costs. The people lose their land and their homes because someone else is illegally dumping and the landowners can't afford to clean it up.

What a great country! Amy

-- Amy Richards (amysgarden2@earthlink.net), March 09, 2001.

Make sure that you look to authorities that you are making an official effort to stop these people. In our county they resurrected an old law against junkyards. They are fining people large amounts per day for "running a junkyard without a permit". Then the fine amasses and they foreclosed on the properties (two so far) and then billed the landowners for the cleanup costs. The people lose their land and their homes because someone else is illegally dumping and the landowners can't afford to clean it up.

What a great country! Amy

-- Amy Richards (amysgarden2@earthlink.net), March 09, 2001.

The county here has cameras that they move around to the more popular dumping areas. The perps aare ID'ed, and, depending on the situation, given the option of spending time cleaning up their mess and others, or facing prosecution and jail. But the idiots still dump!

-- Wayne in Kentucky (wallen328@aol.com), March 11, 2001.

Kentucky is right now making each county accountable for all the trash dumped along the roads. Each county must either clean them all up all the time themselves or make mandatory trash pickup county wide. Ours, Hardin County, is making trash pickup mandatory. They figure if folks have to pay anyway, they will at least put the trash at the road for pickup.

The county still has to clean up all the dumping sites, and there are a LOT of them. There seems to be favorite spots around the area, hillsides and back roads where no one lives. It's awful in some places. We looked at a piece of property along one road that followed the big creek, and it was a dump for 5 miles both sides of the road. You could NEVER get all the glass out of the ground. It's really something that people are so lazy and rude to dump garbage on someone else's land. I don't know how the county workers are going to actually get all those washing machines and appliances UP a steep hill to the road without getting hurt.

In April, we have clean up week, and all CITY residents can put their appliances out for free pickup. The mistake they made was to leave the county residents out of it. In the long run, it would be cheaper for the county to pick them up on curbside than down a hillside. Don't know if they are going to include the county in the clean up weeks or not, but they should. Maybe your county can start a free pickup month, and get lots of folks to just help get the stuff at least to the roadsides for pickup.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@hotmail.com), March 12, 2001.

We live on a dead end road at the end of which is a fire-truck turnaround (just a place where a big truck can back off the road and turn back.) Folks have found that spot convenient to dump trash even though it is posted with an official sign indicating the penalties for dumping, etc. Stuff dumped and found there with addresses actually led to prosecution of someone once, but not sure of a conviction, as we didn't follow it after that. The dumpers were stupid enough to leave envelopes with names, etc.

Anyway, this weekend, my husband was backing our truck up there to get our firewood to haul out, and got a flat tire (some thoughtful person dumped some construction scrap, apparently.) It was a delay that wasn't appreciated, but in hindsight, it gave me an idea.....maybe salting an area with something that would delay a getaway would help catch dumpers? Maybe not nails on boards (dangerous to walkers) but soft mud or something else? Imagine getting stuck at an area where you are trying to make a quick escape! Or maybe just put up a hand-made sign saying that you salted the place with nails!

Perhaps something along these lines will help. Good luck.

-- sheepish (WA) (rborgo@gte.net), March 12, 2001.