Corpus Cristi- A freshly dumped assortment of clothes, video tapes, electronics and an old couch littered the side of rural County Road 73. Mark Cantu and Robert Lugo, the county’s code enforcement officers, discovered it during a routine patrol of the area. They needed to find out who was responsible.
Illegal dumping such as this accounts for a third of the 1,068 complaints Nueces County code enforcement officers have responded to since 2008, according to a Caller-Times analysis of county data…
When a pile of junk is found abandoned alongside a public road, officers in the county place a work order with the county’s public works department. In the city, officers call the city solid waste department to deposit it in the city landfill, a public service paid for with city tax dollars. The county doesn’t operate a trash service or a landfill, so it foots the bill for cleanup.
In an average year, the county spends more than $100,000 picking up illegal dumping, according to figures provided by Nueces County Public Works Director Glen Sullivan. That money comes out of funds set aside for county roads and bridges.
Read full story here