C.B.S. still putting squeeze on illegal dumping
Man charged after melting snow reveals garbage on isolated road
When the snow started to melt near Red Bridge Road in Conception Bay South in late March, an ugly discovery was made.
Bags of garbage, boxes and other debris came to light — illegally dumped at the out-of-theway location and for weeks cloaked by nature’s white blanket, with time and winter working against the ability of the town’s enforcement officers to identify the culprit.
The town’s enforcement unit, however, is no slouch in cracking down on illegal dumping within its boundaries.
In fact, in the last five years, the town has led the way in tackling the problem after implementing a camera surveillance program in 2010 that has resulted in a number of convictions. Fines imposed have ranged from $500 to $1,000.
C.B.S. Mayor Ken McDonald said Tuesday the result has been more than a 90 per cent improvement in the problem.
But on Red Bridge Road when the garbage was dumped during the winter, he noted, there were no cameras. That left good old detective work.
“Somebody throughout the winter decided to discard some garbage and when all the snow started disappearing, the bags of garbage started showing up,” McDonald said.
“So our staff went up and collected the garbage and went through it, and by doing that probably found some way to identify whom they believe the owner of the material is, and charges have been laid under the Environmental Act in relation to illegal dumping.
“It’s not always just cameras. This was in an area we didn’t have any trouble with and all of a sudden with the snow melted, garbage showed. And there was enough in the garbage to identify who the (alleged) owner was.”
Ryan Barnes was charged under Section 16 of the Environmental Protection Act on April 2. He is scheduled to appear in provincial court in St. John’s on May 19.
The town’s enforcement unit turned information from its in- vestigation over to the RNC, which conducted further interviews that resulted in Barnes being charged.
McDonald said the town’s residents became fed up with illegal dumping some years ago, resulting in council adopting a zerotolerance policy on the issue.
That’s when enforcement manager Brian Cranford did research and came up with the idea to install cameras. Cranford was later called upon by other towns to assist in teaching the technique of how to record perpetrators.
“I think we were the first in the province to use the camera system to catch people illegally dumping garbage,” McDonald said. “And we’ve had great success with it and other towns have followed our lead on it and are also having success.
“We were having a problem. When you have roads that I like to say go to nowhere, people, through ignorance or laziness, decide to toss out garbage there.”
Building on the success of C.B.S., the province’s Multi-Materials Stewardship Board (MMSB) has helped other communities install surveillance cameras to discourage illegal dumping. The initiative has greatly reduced illegal dumping activity, the MMSB has said.
The program places two or three hidden cameras at sites where illegal dumping is common. One camera captures images of vehicles driving into the site, and another gets them on the way out.
“We’ve actually partnered with the MMSB in such a way our en- forcement manager has gone across the province. We’ve been teaching other communities, other municipalities on the value of having these cameras and what it provides them to cut down on illegal dumping,” McDonald said.
“We’ve had as many as 12 communities into our town a little over a year ago to talk about what’s new in fighting illegal dumping, and showing them how to use the camera systems. We brought them up to sites and put the cameras in place. They could see it would be a challenge for anyone to find the camera. It’s not something real visible.
“Kudos to the staff because they do a fantastic job. The cameras are well hidden and you wouldn’t know that there’s a camera on you. And the camera works by motion sensor. As soon as there is movement the camera begins taking photos and it takes such detailed pictures and so many so fast, that when you look at the pictures it’s almost like you are looking at a video. It’s paid off in big dividends.”