IIlegal dumping plagues rural area

• Looking through shingles

Tim Blume, Worthington Township chairman, looks through the pile of shingles dumped south of Worthington on 280th Street that the township will be required to clean up at their own expense. (Brian Korthals/Daily Globe)
• Sifting through trash

Tim Blume picks through one of the many bags of garbage dumped on 280th Street in Worthington Township looking for evidence of any identification leading to the identity of those responsible. (Brian Korthals/Daily Globe)

Talk about it

WORTHINGTON — The stench of burnt carpet still hung in the air Tuesday afternoon, days after someone illegally dumped a load of garbage in a ditch across from Smith Lake in rural Worthington. Within a quarter-mile, two more piles — including a large heap of household shingles with nails strewn about — appeared on Monday.

In the third pile, Worthington Township Board chairman Tim Blume picked through garbage bags, empty boxes of imported Mexican beer, wrappers from new shingles and garden refuse hoping to find any clues that might lead to the people who think a township road ditch is a landfill.

It isn’t the first time Blume has been called to the scene of an illegal dumping, and he’s sure it won’t be the last. This latest string, however, has been frustrating.

“They’ve been remodeling and whatever they’ve done each day, they bring it out,” said Blume of the garbage. Each time, the dumping was done during daylight hours.

After the first pile was reported last Thursday, Blume said the paint rollers were still wet when he went out to investigate. The rollers, along with paint cans and a chair frame, had been tossed out with a large carpet. A few days later, Blume returned to the scene to find the carpet and trash charred.

That someone lit a match to the pile is a concern to the county’s environmental office. Mark Koster, Nobles County Environmental Officer, is often called out to investigate matters such as illegal dumping.

“Burning is a big (concern) because that gets in the environment right away,” Koster said.

In the last six months, Koster’s investigations have led to the discovery of two or three violators. In those cases, the individuals were contacted via both telephone and mail to clean up the mess.

Koster has heard his share of excuses in the past from people who have dumped garbage in a public ditch.

“Most people will say, ‘It just fell out of my trailer,’ or ‘I didn’t even know it happened,’ or ‘That’s not my garbage,’” he said. Faced with the facts, most will go out and clean up the mess. If they don’t, Koster said the county sheriff’s department or the game warden are contacted.

Koster said illegal dumping is taking place in a lot of different areas of the county, although a majority is reported a short distance outside of Worthington.

“You see some appliances when somebody doesn’t want to pay to get rid of a computer monitor or an old TV,” he said. “They would rather drive outside of town and dump it in a ditch and let someone else deal with it because they don’t want to pay the $5 or the $10 that it takes to get rid of it.”

When garbage is illegally dumped along township roads, it is the township that must clean up the mess and pay the bill. At the same time, the county must pay for garbage dumped in county road ditches, according to Wayne Smith, Nobles County Environmental Services director.

At a time when budgets are tight, the last thing the township needs is to pay for someone to bring out a dumpster, call in board members to help with the clean-up and then pay once more when the trash is hauled to the landfill.

“We’re operating on a deficit right now, let alone these things,” Blume said.

While these last illegal dumpings contained a lot of trash from a remodeling project, Koster said everything from household garbage to small appliances is found.

“It’s mostly the household garbage and the diapers,” he said.

Nobles County Environmental Services receives a call about once a month, on average, regarding illegal dumping, said Smith.

“People think they can go out in the country and dump it in the ditch and think it’s someone else’s problem,” he said. “If it ends up on your property, it’s your responsibility. When it ends up in your township, it’s your tax dollars that pay for it.

“It behooves everybody to be aware of what’s happening out in the country,” Smith said.

If people witness illegal dumping, Smith said they should report it to the county sheriff’s office.

“It is a criminal action, punishable by criminal and civil penalties,” he said.

At one time, the environmental office staffed a summer worker to respond to illegal dumpings. Smith said that with budget cuts, there is no longer the manpower to do the work.

That leaves Blume on a stretch of 280th Street with three piles of household waste for the township to clear away.

“I told one of the other township members we might as well buy a big wagon and create a collection,” he said. “This is something that’s going to be ongoing, the way it looks to me.

“Last spring we had to go around and we picked up 30-some televisions, 20-some microwaves and some vacuum cleaners — a whole farm wagon plumb full,” said Blume. “The county really treated us good on that one.”

Tags: state and region, news, agriculture