PERRY TOWNSHIP - While many creeks in Lawrence County are littered with trees, leaves and brush, Connie Lucas and her neighbors on Township Road 102 will tell you their portion of Little Ice Creek is littered with, well, litter.

They hope they can find help cleaning out the clogged creek before their bad problem gets worse.

"There's a bookcase in it, old bleach jugs - you name it, it's in there," Lucas said. "The creeks are full, it's almost blocked clear across. It's horrible."

She isn't kidding. The landfill that has popped up downstream from her house has propane cylinders, furniture, children's yard toys, a utility pole and soft drink containers of every size and brand. Styrofoam packing pieces are piled against rugs and pieces of wood.

The water in the creek is maneuvering

around the pile of garbage - for now. Lucas said she worries what will happen in the event of a flash flood, something that happens often in Lawrence County in the spring time.

"We know the water will get high again. Then what?" Lucas asked.

Lucas said with the weather getting warmer, she feared that snakes will find a good hiding place in the debris and present another problem, since some children have been known to play in the creek.

By state law, creeks are the responsibility of the property owner. But Lucas and her immediate neighbors said the trash is washing onto their property from somewhere else - trash that does not belong to them, but has become their problem.

Lawrence-Scioto Solid Waste District Coordinator Chuck Yaniko said trash dumping presents a particular problem for local officials.

"The EPA and the sheriff's office do enforcement, but if they don't have anything to identify who is doing it, there is little they can do," Yaniko said.

Lawrence County Sheriff Tim Sexton agreed. He said his office has had some success recently with finding the culprits of other illegal dumping, but said lack of manpower and lack of evidence proving who did the dumping can make these investigations difficult.

"We would do more of it if we had the manpower," Sexton said. "We'll do the best that we can do, but we have to prioritize our complaints."

Perry Township Assistant Fire Chief Larry Anderson said while firefighters have burned trash for residents as a training exercise, they generally do not clean out creeks. He said some firefighters may volunteer to do it on their own as a neighborly gesture.