A couple of commons sites for illegally dumped garbage have been cleaned up by some community volunteers.
In the Nukko Lake area, off to the side of Mossvale Road, a group of do-gooders showed up for a trash-mob that hauled away pickup loads of junk. Trudy Mothus is vice-president of the Ness Lake Recreation Commission and was involved in organizing the efforts.
"People have been dumping at these sites for years. Mossvale is one of the sites, but there are several causing us concern out here in the lakes area," Mothus said. "It's been piling up more, lately, and we just got fed up. People don't want to pay the dumping fees, and we estimate it's about half and half, people from this area dumping and half from in-town, based on what we've seen in the trash."
There are clues as to the identity of the illegal dumpers, so those are being passed on to Conservation Officers who are taking the matter seriously. One of the city's senior C.O.s, Rory Smith, said some prosecution action is already underway and more was pending.
Smith also said another problem spot was recently cleaned up, thanks largely to Allen's Scrap And Salvage who did the literal heavy lifting.
"At the end of Miworth Road there was a number of vehicles abandoned, shot up, heavily damaged," said Smith. "We'd been aware of the site for a long time, it was a sore spot for the community, and thanks to some key players coming to the table with us, it actually got cleaned up pretty fast. It was only a couple of hours. They have the heavy equipment to just pick up the old carcasses of vehicles, throw them into a tri-axle semi-trailer, and it's all gone for scrap metal recycling."
Mothus said one of the illegal dumps sites in the Lakes area will have to wait until spring, now that the snow has fallen, but it is a public safety priority. It is close to a school bus turnaround where children are picked up and dropped off, while only a few dozen metres away is the illicit dump where many animal remains have been tossed. It has attracted cougars and other predators to the area.
She also said the ad-hoc group of cleaners is considering the acquisition of trail cameras to secretly film people doing their dumping deeds. It might help with prosecution or at least public embarrassment.
"There just isn't any excuse for this," she said. "If you are a resident of this area, you get free dumping privileges, so if it's locals they are just being lazy. If you're from in town, you're spending $40 or $50 in gas to save yourself $6 at the Foothills dump. None of it computes. There are easy ways to dispose of all this stuff without polluting someone's neighbourhood and harming the environment."
While Mothus and her cleanup friends north of the city are carrying out their plans, another successful cleanup was done at a dump spot on Tabor Mountain by a similar "fed up" group of residents there.
Smith said his office is willing to help, and make investigations of these sites a priority even with all the other duties the Conservation Officer Service has to perform.
"These are driven by public complaints," he said. "There really is no excuse for it, because the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George has plenty of places where you can deposit your waste in a lawful manner."
