Santa Cruz County launches new website to report illegal dumping

The presence of illegal dumping in Santa Cruz County has raised concerns among residents, and has for years, said Santa Cruz County Zero Waste Analyst, Beau Hawksford.

In response to complaints, the county has decided to take action by creating a website that allows locals to report dump sites.

Community members are even able to access the site through an application on their phones. A feature county officials hope will help to increase communication between them and the community.

Hawksford said that once a site is reported, the county’s response team is notified and will assess the situation within twenty-four hours.

The Santa Cruz County Communications Manager, Jason Hoppin, said that in many cases, the dumps create a health hazard.

“It’s an environmental hazard because the dumpsites can become havens for rats and mosquitos, especially mosquitoes, carry all kinds of diseases. They’re actually the deadliest animal know to man. A lot of people don’t know that. We want to get on top of it. We want to keep it cleaned up, and we want people to let us know if they see problems in their neighborhoods, so they can report it to us, so we can take care of it,” said Hoppin.

Hoppin said that many of the dumped items, were, at one point, considered recyclable. Some of these include TVs, couches, mattresses, metal scraps, cardboard, and styrofoam. But, after spending time in outdoor conditions, most items must be taken to a landfill.

Hawksford added that the landfill only has 12 years left of air-space left.

“We’re at a point where we can’t expand it anymore. There’s limited space. That could also go up or down depending on how well people recycle,” said Hawksford.

Santa Cruz County officials encourage residents to get involved in the effort by using the new site.

To report cases illegal dumping visit www.stopdumping.us.