GRANTS, N.M. – When going on a drive a hike or a walk, no one wants to see trash and garbage cluttering the side of the road or piled in arroyos. County Commissioner and City of Grants Code Enforcer Robert Windhorst stated, “It is distracting to find trash in a beautiful place.”
When illegal dumping is reported, Mr. Windhorst goes to the site and looks through the mess to determine if there is information leading to the party responsible. Most times he’s called, there is some form of information pertaining to who dumped and will send citations and a notice to come and remove the garbage. In one instance, Mr. Windhorst contacted an individual whose name was on papers at a dump site. After contact, it was determined the son decided to keep the money instead of taking the trash to the transfer station for proper disposal. The son was contacted and made to go and remove the trash and take it to the transfer station.
Mr. Windhorst will receive calls concerning trash dumped along a county road and he calls the county who will go and pick it up. Dumping in arroyos is a major problem. When rainwater comes rushing through an arroyo one of two things happens. One, the arroyo gets backed up and causes flooding, or the trash gets carried to other communities like Acoma causing flooding in those communities due to blockage.
Although dumping tires has become less of a problem, the issue still exists. When tires are found they are gathered and taken to the city lot by the dog park and added to an increasing mountain of tires. Windhorst stated C&E wants to experiment with grinding tires for road material, and roads that use ground tire rubber are more durable. The process would involve removing the steel from the tires and then shredding them into small pieces.
At one point the city had dumpsters placed in various locations for residents to use, but rules and procedures were not respected causing the city to remove them. Piles of trash sat outside of the dumpsters and the dumpsters were overfilled past the lip. The situation reached the point where trash collectors rejected pick-ups due to the conditions of the sites.
These factors spurred the need for communitywide cleanup initiatives. Northwest NM Regional Solid Waste Authority provides the roll-off containers for free and residents are encouraged to bring their unwanted junk and trash to place into the containers. There is plenty of help at these sites to get everything into the containers including front loader tractors.
Plastics and cardboard are recyclable and anyone can take their cardboard to one of the recycling locations. The object is to get residents to keep their properties clean and keep trash off the streets of Grants.
Within the county, the Cibola Sheriff’s Office will state where dump sites can be found using GPS coordination and are quickly removed.
Three letters are sent to those people in violation of codes or illegally dumping items. The first will be a warning letter to correct the issue; the second letter is a final warning, and the third letter is a $300 fine and a possible 30-day jail sentence. Generally, corrective actions are taken before the third letter is sent.
Mr. Windhorst also stated that weeds, grass, and branches can be taken to the transfer station free of charge. He also stated the city has a program to spray weeds which effectively keeps the weed issue to a minimum and is cost-effective by keeping down maintenance costs.
Many streets are now in compliance and issues involving trash have made considerable progress. It was said what you pack in should be packed out. This involves policing your debris and spent ammo casings when target practicing.