Photo provided While city sanitation crews attempt to be flexible with moving families, this pile of garbage northeast of downtown Columbus wasn’t removed for several days, neighbors said. This pile is illegal because many items were not bagged and the city was never notified it was there, Columbus Department of Public Works Director Bryan Burton said.
While most people won’t admit dumping their trash where they shouldn’t, some will.
A new survey indicates 13% of Hoosiers admit they have illegally dumped their refuse on somebody else’s property.
The amount of illegal dumping in rural areas surrounding Columbus rose a few years ago and is continuing at nearly the same level, Bartholomew County Highway Superintendent Dwight Smith said.
“Some don’t understand that if they have a small load, that’s not going to cost them anything,” Smith said. “When they think they’ll have to pay, they try to get rid of it along the road someplace.”
In some instances, community-minded individuals or groups will clean up the trash before local authorities get involved, Smith said.
While statistics are not kept regarding how many sites are cleaned up by local government workers, Smith estimates his crews are dispatched more than 40 times a year to handle refuse that is dumped, or has been piled at various sites.
It’s not new, Bartholomew County Commissioner Larry Kleinhenz emphasized. There has always been illegal dumping in our region, and it will likely continue, he said.
“We’re talking big trash like couches, TVs, tires, and other things they have to spend money to get rid of,” Kleinhenz said.
The concerns
The most common item being dumped is food waste, which draws and harbors rodents and insects, Bartholomew County Environmental Health Director Linc Fulp said.
Highway crews have taken away entire refrigerators full of spoiled food, as well as several bags filled with dirty diapers that also pose health risks, Smith said.
The county has a vector control program designed to limit or eradicate mammals, birds, arthropods or insects or such as mosquitoes that might cause disease, Fulp said. Food waste gives these pests a place to live and breed, along with any item that holds stagnant water, he said.
According to the survey, 57% of the illegal dumps are food waste. Next are old mattresses at 17%, televisions at 8%, computers at 6% and a mix of furniture and appliances at 4%. The survey was commissioned by a national website for pest control.
Within Columbus, most illegal dumping occur in homeless encampments under bridges, in wooded areas, along riverbanks and on private property, Columbus Department of Public Works Director Bryan Burton said.
In July of 2019, many local residents were surprised to learn that city crews cleared up 34 of these sites and hauled away more than 88,000 tons of refuse, Burton said. So far this year, those same workers have picked up more than 50 tons of refuse, Columbus Code Enforcement officer Fred Barnett said.
Those statistics don’t include individuals that dump unwanted large items into dumpsters paid for by retail operations, Burton said.
Odd jobs
Some illegal dumps are both unusual and unnecessary. Smith recalled a number of years ago when a truck full of old roofing materials, including nails, left its entire load scattered across a street spanning the entire community of Azalia.
County highway engineer Danny Hollander recently talked about a dump truck that dropped enough fill dirt to completely cover a guardrail on the county’s south side. That allowed those responsible to drive heavy trucks over the buried guardrail to get into an agricultural field. When they left, the huge pile of dirt was covering a rural road.
Kleinhenz recalls a group that used a tarp to line the entire bed of a one-ton straight truck before filling it full of shingles. They backed up to a telephone pole on a county road, pulled the entire tarp out, and left all the shingles on the edge of the road, the commissioner said.
A more recent incident outlined by Smith involves somebody dumping seven televisions off the bridge along South Gladstone Avenue that crosses Clifty Creek.
Besides electronics, another item frequently dumped illegally is old tires.
“When you find 30 tires in one place, you know it’s likely a tire shop someplace that doesn’t want to pay to get rid of them,” Smith said.
Several old tires picked up by county road crews are currently being stored in the old county highway garage near State St. and Gladstone Avenue, Smith said. The county will have to hire a vendor specifically to take away those tires at a cost to taxpayers, he said.
Likely to get worse
As warmer weather returns, more people will be remodeling. Smith said that means more furniture, carpet, sinks and other household fixtures will end up dumped along the roadside in the spring and summer months, he said.
Commissioner Chairman Tony London says he has seen plenty of illegal dumps while driving on county roads. He especially notices when trash is dumped onto agricultural land, which causes refuse to end up spread over a wide area.
“It irritates me to no end,” London said. “It happens all over in the most remote areas of the county. You can go north, south, east or west and find illegal dumping.”
Once the appropriate agency is notified, both Smith and Fulp say efforts are quickly made to clean up these sites as soon as possible. But since these area change so often, any published list will quickly become outdated.
The penalties
State penalty for open dumping: Violators of Indiana’s Open Dumping Law can face a fine of up to $25,000 a day for each violation. That sum does not include fines or penalties that local health departments, solid waste management districts and local prosecutors can impose. (Source: Indiana Dept. of Environmental Management)
Bartholomew County Code of Ordinance 152.080
No building, vehicle, structure, receptacle, yard, lot, premises or part thereof shall be constructed, made, used, maintained or operated in any manner causing or producing any health or safety hazard, or permitted to become a rodent harborage and insect infestation. It shall be unlawful for any occupant of any dwelling unit, building or structure of any kind whatever, to vacate the premises without his or her causing to be removed therefrom and properly disposed of, all garbage or rubbish or other objectionable waste of any kind.
PENALTY: Any person who shall violate any provision shall, upon conviction, be fined in an amount not to exceed $500. Each violation shall constitute a separate offense and each day after the given abatement period, constitutes a separate violation. (Prior Code, § 5-110) (Ord. 1988-09, passed 6-6-1988)
TO REPORT AN OPEN DUMP: Contact the Indiana Department of Environment Management at 800-451-6027.
For more details, call Technical Code Enforcement of Columbus/Bartholomew County at 812-379-1535 or the office of Columbus Code Enforcement at 812-343-8864.
