Efforts to keep Lincoln County fresh and clean have beenbolstered by a state grant meant to pay expenses incurred by countyofficials when removing illegal dump sites that occasionally pop upon roadsides and wooded trails.

The solid waste assistance grant from the Mississippi Departmentof Environmental Quality will cover $13,245 worth of manpower, fueland other expenses tallied by Lincoln County Litter ControlCoordinator Ronnie Durr and his staff. They daily patrol the countyon the lookout for piles of tires, shingles, mattresses and otherunwanted trash that a few littering citizens see fit to illegallyunload on Mother Nature.

But Durr, in his vigilance, has already done the work and spentthe money.

“Truth be told, we’ve probably done used it and that’s areimbursement,” he said. “But if we did not have that moneyavailable to us, we wouldn’t be doing this kind of work. You needmoney to do everything.”

Durr said the process of removing what he calls “informal” dumpsites is more complicated than simply grabbing a rake and trashbag.

MDEQ has guidelines for the removal of large dump sites thatsometimes call for onsite burial, which can require expensive heavymachinery. The process begins when a landowner requests assistancefrom the county in removing the trash and fills out paperwork thatDurr signs and presents to the Lincoln County Board of Supervisorsfor approval.

Though calling in the bulldozers and burying big dump sites isnot too common, Durr said, he and his crew find and remove anaverage of one smaller dump site per week. Sometimes they find thesites themselves, sometimes sites are reported by sheriff’sdeputies and sometimes concerned citizens spot the garbage and pickup the phone – a big help to litter crews.

Durr said some of the dump sites aren’t cleaned up right away,but left intact and monitored to see if the dumper can becaught.

“A lot people patrol the roads, and when they see problems, theylet us know,” Durr said. “When people get tired of looking atsomething, they become conscious and aware of how good it looks bynot having that stuff out there.”

Durr said illegal dumping in Lincoln County is still a problem,but a problem that has been greatly reduced in recent years.

“When I first came to work here (1998), these sites wereeverywhere, just everywhere,” he said. “We’ve widdled ’em down andnarrowed ’em down, kept an eye on them and monitored them.”

Part of the reason dump sites have declined in recent years,Durr said, is the annual Great American Cleanup, which recentlyconcluded successfully in 2009. The five-week opening of industrialtrash bins allows people a place to legally unload unwanted itemsthat are hard to dispose of and sometimes end up in illegaldumps.

Keep Lincoln County Beautiful member Homer Richardson said hisorganization will seek to expand the Great American Cleanup in 2010with the addition of a one-day hazardous materials disposal event,where materials like paint, pesticides, motor oil and otherchemicals may be safely disposed of.

“Those are things that rust out and people don’t know what to dowith them. You don’t want to pour it down the drain, don’t want thekids and animals getting into them and you’re stuck with them,”Richardson said. “We have not done (hazardous waste disposal) inseveral years because we have not been able to get a grant. As aresult, we’ve asked people just please properly store it and keepit out of the way.”

Richardson said KLCB would pursue the grant when applicationsbegin being accepted in October. If funded, the disposal day wouldcoincide with the start of the Great American Cleanup nextyear.

Without the grant, however, the event will not happen.Richardson said the cost of such an event – which requires aprofessional collector and his equipment to gather and haul thematerials to a special site for disposal – can cost$20,000-$30,000.

“I would like to see us do it,” he said. “It’s been a long time,and each year I’ve tried to promise a next year.”