California county paying thousands of dollars each year to clean up large trash items from rural roads

A familiar story is rearing its ugly head in Northern California, where rural roads in Sonoma County—about an hour north of San Fransciso—have become dumping grounds for people looking to discard large trash items like mattresses, refrigerators, furniture and even a boat, Julie Johnson reports for The Press Democrat. "Most Fridays, a Sonoma County probation crew drives around collecting large items discarded illegally along the county’s picturesque rural roads." Janine Crocker, a staffer with the Sonoma County roads department, told Johnson, "They’re all over the county. It’s everywhere." (Democrat photo by Christopher Chung: Trash dumped on a road in front of a Sonoma County rural business)

The county pays nearly $11,000 each year to discard items properly at the dump, Johnson writes. "In 2009, the county posted signs and six motion-detector surveillance cameras in the worst spots with a $500,000 grant from the California Integrated Waste Management Board to catch violators. It also started a website, which has since been deactivated, to educate the public about illegal dumping." At the time, the county estimated the total cost of "cleaning up the steady stream of trash being dumped along waterways and roads was $250,000 per year." A current estimate was not available. (Read more)