Much of the garbage piled up on the gravelly Harrell Road in northwestern Oktibbeha County is unidentifiable, but the heap does include an upended toilet. A discarded mattress lies several yards east.
Harrell Road has been Icey Guyton’s home for her entire life, and she said she strongly disapproves of the “nasty” trash heap near her residence.
“Why would (people) come all the way over here to throw their trash out when they can put it somewhere else besides on our road?” Guyton said. “I think it’s a disgrace.”
The spot is one of several illegal “dump sites” throughout the county, officials say. An annual Solid Waste Assistance Grant from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality covers much of what Darrell Fulgham, the county’s only certified solid waste enforcement officer, called an “astronomical” cost of cleaning up dump sites.
MDEQ announced the $20,224 grant in a Tuesday press release, and the dollar amount varies year to year. MDEQ Communications Director Robbie Wilbur said the allocation “remains pretty steady,” but County Administrator Emily Garrard and District 1 Supervisor and Board President John Montgomery said Oktibbeha County usually receives anywhere from $8,000 to $10,000.
The county uses the grant to hire contractors to haul the trash to the Golden Triangle Regional Landfill on Old West Point Road. Fulgham said the last bid for one cleanup was about $8,500, and the county cleans up some sites over and over again
“Most of the dump sites are in deep gulleys, and they have to get that stuff out of there by hand most of the time, and it’s just a labor-intensive process,” he said.
State law classifies unauthorized dump sites as a “public nuisance” and requires authorities to remove or bury the garbage. A person can be fined up to $25,000 for creating or adding to a dump site.
The landfill is the only place to legally dump garbage in Oktibbeha County, but “it’s way out of the way” for residents of Maben, Sturgis and other outskirts of the county, so they dump their trash closer to home, Fulgham said.
The county tries to discourage dumping by installing cameras to try to catch people at dump sites and putting up signs that say, “Absolutely No Dumping,” most recently at a site on Townsend Road in the northeastern part of the county, Fulgham said.
“Most times you don’t catch people dumping; you catch people looking through it,” he said.
Fulgham spends at least one day a week monitoring dump sites in addition to his regular job doing county building maintenance, he said.
County supervisors agree that dump sites are a problem and the annual MDEQ grant is necessary.
“We always run out of money before we run out of projects,” Montgomery said. “If we keep them picked up when we spot them, that helps deter future dumping.”
Guyton said she has contacted her supervisor, Marvell Howard of District 3, about the Harrell Road site. Howard said he has been aware of the site and the issue for years.
“I haven’t noticed it getting worse in my district, but it definitely hasn’t gotten any better,” Howard said.
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 44 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
