County commissioners have partnered with the Lawrence-Scioto Joint Solid Waste District to send a message – open dump users will be caught.

Tuesday, April 11, 2000

County commissioners have partnered with the Lawrence-Scioto Joint Solid Waste District to send a message – open dump users will be caught.

"The bottom line is to get people to quit doing this stuff," said David Sheets, district executive director.

"We’re not trying to arrest everybody in Lawrence County; we’re just trying to get them to take care of their trash," Sheets said.

"Hey, garbage collection rates are cheap here compared to the rest of the country."

Sheets’s mission will be to hide the county’s security camera near open dumps around the county and videotape illegal dump users.

And Sheets expects to find an epidemic problem.

"I could spend all my time driving up and down roads counting all the open dumps," he said.

The county has about 100 to 200 serious open dumps, which are classified as areas with more trash than casual litter.

"It’s specifically a problem where we’re finding garbage bags carried from homes, old couches, mattresses, chairs, refrigerators, shingles and other debris," Sheets said.

The Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization’s litter control crew picked up more than 37,000 pounds of litter from roadsides last year, he said.

"That’s just from people cleaning out their front seat," he said.

There also has been more than 32,000 pounds cleaned from open dumps on public lands.

Open dumping is a danger because the garbage decomposes, attracts rats, flies, snakes, rats and mosquitoes, and contaminates water, Sheets said.

"And a lot of what comes out of household waste is hazardous material, like cleaning materials, Clorox, ammonia," he said.

"When you get a serious concentration, it’s a serious problem for underground water tables and a lot of people in this county are still using wells," Sheets said.

Metal cans can be dangerous, too, because many are zinc lined, he added.

"That’s no problem with one or two, but a pile 30 feet long will cause a serious metal contamination of the soil," he said.

Open dumping also makes the county look bad, which can impact economic development, Sheets said.

"I think a guy wanting to move a plant here would drive some of these backroads and look at these yards and dumps and say, ‘This is the kind of workforce I’ll be hiring? I’ll go to Indiana,’" he said.

Government cleanup efforts can only take place on public lands, but agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office can force landowners and offenders to clean up dump sites.

"Basically, they find who is responsible, who dumped it or target the landowner," Sheets said.

The county expects to follow a similar method with its video surveillance, he added.

Once cameras are in place, those making the dumps will be caught on film. They can be fined and taken to court, among other things.

The county will get serious about it, Sheets said.

"And we, the EPA or the attorney general’s office will prosecute if we catch someone on tape."