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Foresters battle rural dumping Jim Craven photo John Samuelson, Ashland Resource Area engineer with the Bureau of Land Management, checks out trash along a creek in the Anderson Butte area. Illegal dumping on federal forests is getting worse - and more costly for taxpayers to clean up. Taxpayers foot the bill for cleanup By PAUL FATTIG You name it, chances are John Samuelson has seen it. That includes everything from piles of disposable diapers and rusting water heaters to stained carpets and broken-down refrigerators. "Household garbage, appliances of all kinds, mattresses, car parts - everything," he said. "We've even found a boat motor." Samuelson isn't a garbageman but an engineer with the Bureau of Land Management's Medford District working in the Ashland Resource Area. He often finds piles of stinking garbage that some scofflaw has pitched or pushed over the side of a rural BLM road. Who to call for dumping information If you have hazardous materials you need to dispose of, contact the state Department of Environmental Quality or the Rogue Disposal and Recycling Inc. Both the DEQ's regional office in Medford (776-6010) and Rogue Disposal (779-4161) can advise how the materials should be handled. "It's a historical problem, and it seems to be getting worse," Samuelson said. "We're being forced to close off roads because people are turning them into garbage dumps. We're trying to stop it." Not only is the material smelly, but it can pose a hazard to the environment, he said. "Some of it is very hazardous," he said. "Sometimes you have a leaking gas tank or something." Officials also are concerned about hazardous chemicals dumped from illegal drug manufacturing operations. But household garbage and appliances are the most common. "The Anderson Butte area tends to be one of the worst places for it," Samuelson said. "There are also dumps up Wagner Creek, and out on Kane and Birdseye creeks near Gold Hill. "A lot of the junk is thrown off a road over into a steep canyon," he added. "Sometimes you can have a refrigerator or something go down a couple of hundred feet. That's real difficult to get out of there." The problem isn't restricted to the BLM's Medford District, which budgets $15,000 a year to remove household garbage from the sides of rural roads. The staffs of the Rogue River and Siskiyou national forests also are trying to stop people from using the forests as garbage dumps. "Illegal dumping is a real problem for us," said Mary Marrs, spokeswoman for the two forests. "It costs us a lot of time and a lot of money." Although the exact annual cost of removing garbage from the two forests isn't available because it fluctuates each year, one incident in the Prospect Ranger District last July 4 weekend indicates how much it can cost taxpayers. After someone dumped asbestos shingles - hazardous wastes - in a remote part of the district, the Forest Service paid $7,000 to have the asbestos shingles removed by specialists. Both agencies have to contract out to have hazardous materials removed. Depending on the hazardous materials dumped, it could cost more than $25,000 to clean one site, Marrs said. "We also get things like abandoned cars, four or five every few years," she said. "Our law enforcement has to do a title search to try to find the legal owner." It all adds up to cost taxpayers, she said. It can also cost those who are dumping the material. Under federal law, those convicted of a misdemeanor of illegal dumping on federal land could receive a sentence of six months in jail and/or a $5,000 fine. If it is deemed a felony, triggered by more than $1,000 in damages, those convicted could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. Anyone found guilty of illegal dumping must also pay for cleaning up the mess. "We've caught some of them," Samuelson said. "People out in an area have called in with license plates and a description when they see something suspicious going on. That helps us a lot." Anyone who sees someone driving on a forest road with a load of garbage or dumping any illegal material is asked to called the BLM at 618-2200 or the Rogue River forest headquarters at 858-2200 or the Siskiyou forest office at (541) 471-6500. Both agencies have law enforcement officers and contract out to Jackson and Josephine county sheriff's offices for deputies to patrol the rural roads. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.