With only a dozen officers handling environmental crimes across the state, the scofflaws tend to have the upper hand when leaving trash bags, construction materials and old tires along the highways and byways in Delaware.
But despite the best efforts of people to avoid paying for waste disposal by dumping trash where it doesn’t belong, law enforcement sometimes gets its man. And in some cases its woman.
A Dover woman was arrested last week after the Natural Resources Police Environmental Crimes Unit investigated a recent dumping complaint made to DNREC’s Office of Community Services.
Judine Simms, 51, was charged with using a motor vehicle to dispose of or discharging solid waste for dumping multiple bags of household trash on the roadside of South Little Creek Road in Kent County.
Simms, who was only the fourth person arrested so far in 2018 for similar charges, was fined $500 and required to pick up the trash that she had dumped.
Two other arrests made in 2018 occurred in February and stem from incidents of illegal trash dumping on state wildlife areas by two downstate men.
Ibis A. Ayala, 33, of Dover, was charged with four counts of causing or contributing to the disposal or discharge of solid waste on the Division of Fish & Wildlife-owned Woodland Beach Wildlife Area near Smyrna.
William H. Cloak III, 41, of Felton, was charged with one count of causing or contributing to the disposal or discharge of solid waste on the Fish & Wildlife-owned Norman G. Wilder Wildlife Area near Felton.
Both men were fined and released, according to the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
Since 2013, DNREC law enforcement officers have arrested 96 people for “Improper Disposal of Solid Waste.” The total fines imposed from 2013 to now are just over $50,000.
That’s only a fraction of what it costs to clean up the discarded trash in Delaware and across the country.
Litter cleanup costs the U.S. an estimated $11.5 billion each year, with states, cities and counties together spending $1.3 billion on litter abatement, according to the latest National Visible Litter Survey and Litter Cost Study.
According to Delaware’s litter control law, any person found guilty of littering or illegal dumping can be fined no less than $50 and given up to eight hours of community service for a first offense. That rises to a $75 fine and up to 25 hours of community service for a second offense within two years.
If the offense occurred on or along a Delaware byway – defined as any road adjacent to an area of particular scenic, historical or cultural interest – an additional mandatory penalty of $500 must be imposed for every first, second and subsequent offense, in addition to the fine.
To read the full story, visit https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2018/04/08/delaware-stepping-up-efforts-prosecute-those-dumping-trash-along-roadways/487583002/.