Farmers battle illegally dumped trash

By Craig W. Anderson

For San Joaquin County farmers dealing with illegally dumped trash on their property there is no off season, no respite and no escape from the adverse impact such thoughtlessness brings to rural county areas.

Cleaning up illegal trash dumping costs San Joaquin County more than $750,000 annually, according to the county’s Public Works Department, and rural roadside trash is comprised of almost anything, said supervisor, dairy farmer and SJFB member Leroy Ornellas. “We find sofas, end tables, refrigerators, televisions, computers, tires and burned cars.”

The overall costs related to illegal dumping statewide are staggering: in addition to cleanup by private landowners, cities and counties collectively spend more than $32 million annually cleaning up illegal dumpsites, according to Farm Bureau figures.

And Cal-Trans has a yearly budget of $55 million to cover litter and illegal dumping abatement along state highways.

Illegal dumping task force created

The San Joaquin Board of Supervisors has established the Illegal Dumping Task Force to come up with some solutions, Ornellas said. “There’s no silver bullet that will solve the problem completely, but it can be reduced.”

And now that spring is here, dumping will probably increase, said SJFB President Joe Valente. “It seems to be seasonal and as the weather gets better people are spring cleaning, doing yard work and the piles start accumulating in rural areas.”

Trash trashes tourism

He also noted that while mere trash is bad, rural illegal dumping becomes uglier with the paint, tires, oil, solvents and sometimes drug paraphernalia added to the items discarded on private property.

And trash doesn’t present an appropriate image of the county to tourists here for events in cities or touring the wine country.

“Nothing looks worse to tourists than piles of trash,” Valente said. “The county, industries and agriculture is promoting tourism in the area and, let’s face it, trash isn’t a big draw.”

Demographics determined, grants available

Tossing trash in rural areas is a nationwide epidemic that has prompted action by county governments. However, it doesn’t always work. For example, Santa Cruz County established free dumping at county sites to encourage legal disposal and, said Ornellas, “it made no difference. The demographic of illegal dumpers cuts across all sectors of society.”

However, a board of supervisors study did narrow it down somewhat, discovering that significant contributors to dumping in the county included renters; small, unlicensed haulers – AKA handymen – advertising clean-up services; unregulated construction and demolition related activities; the inability to prosecute at the district attorney level; and main transportation corridors near unincorporated residential areas.

On a state level, California’s Integrated Waste Management Board helps counties by providing grants to clean up hundreds of cubic yards of waste dumped on privately owned property throughout California.

Via the Board’s Farm and Ranch Solid Waste Cleanup and Abatement Program, up to $50,000 in cleanup funding is available per project and up to $200,000 per applicant per fiscal year.

Thus far, the board has awarded more than 100 grants totaling more than $4.4 million to clean up more than 300 illegal disposal sites within the state from this program.

The deliberate despoiling of private property is an inexcusable act, said board chair Margo Reid Brown in December. “We are happy to work with local governments…to give landowners much needed financial relief.”

Board of Supervisors study

According to a San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors study, its 1,440 square mile mix of cattle ranches, farmland and urban area creates extra costs that are “…passed on to residents in the form of annual taxes or to solid waste customers through higher gate feels and the environmental effects and quality of life costs are borne by all county residents.”

In 2006, 662 remediated illegal dump sites were reported and the sheriff’s department recorded 556 calls reporting illegal dumping.

Permanent work group created

The board has established a permanent work group in support of the Illegal Dumping Prevention Task Force to develop means of fighting illegal dumping and the county will continue the “pursuit of grant funds to combat illegal dumping.”

Among other things, the work group will work on prevention (via education, legislative measures and license requirements, lighting, fencing and signage), Apprehension (coordinated stings, surveillance) and prosecution (fines, penalties, community service).

Education vital

“Education of the public is important,” said Scott Tyrrell, legislative assistant for Supervisor Ornellas. “Good prosecutions need to be publicized and a Web site is being created where people can report violations, check on the tracking of cleanup, apply for reward money, be educated about the situation, and find licensed, legitimate haulers.”

Tyrrell also said the promotion plan may have local professional athletes espousing proper disposal of trash. “We’re working to establish partnerships with local professional sports teams to have their athletes speak in PSAs, on billboards and in media ads. In Texas a similar program with the Cowboys and Astros has driven a good turnaround in decreasing trash dumping.”

Irony abounds in that dumpers think they’re saving money with their illegal actions but, said Tyrrell, “It all comes around to higher costs for goods and services along with higher fees and taxes for all taxpayers in the county.”

San Joaquin Farm Bureau’s Program Director Tom Orvis reports that “we’re working on a grant for cleanup of illegally dumped tires” so rural property owners can dispose of tires dumped on their land in an economically friendly way.

With the state’s budget concerns causing money to be lopped off of dozens of programs, grant money will remain available, said Ornellas, because “it doesn’t come from the general fund and thus the state can’t touch it.”

Metal theft affects trash dumping enforcement

Different crimes affect overall enforcement, said Sgt. Mark Dreher of the sheriff’s Ag Crimes Unit. “Metal theft is so prevalent that it draws law enforcement away from illegal trash dumping.” And Mary Ann Dahl, senior office assistant with the abatement section, noted, “There seems to be no rhyme or reason to dumping but the amount of drug refuse dumping seems to be lower.”

Valente agreed, saying, “I haven’t seen as much meth lab debris as I did three or four years ago when I ran across it quite often. And there don’t seem to be as many dumped and burned cars as previously.”

Garbage trucks littering countryside

On a slightly different tack, SJFB board member and Manteca area farmer Mike Gikas said garbage is flying off collection trucks on their routes through the southern part of the county creating “a continuous build up of trash in weeds along roads and even in trees. “The wind blows it across fields and orchards,” he said. “It’s particularly bad along Lathrop Road to Hwy. 99.”

Gikas said the county or cities should be responsible for picking up the unsightly mess and the garbage trucks need to be monitored and appropriate steps taken to curtail the flying trash.