B.C. Conservation Officer Service to consider hidden cameras to combat illegal dumping
Credit to Author: Glenda Luymes| Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2019 20:59:37 +0000
B.C. conservation officers may soon have a new tool to combat illegal dumping in the B.C. backcountry as the Conservation Officer Service considers using hidden cameras to catch people who toss their trash on Crown land.
Sgt. Don Stahl said officers need detailed information to issue fines to people who dump everything from construction waste to household garbage in remote areas.
“An option we’re looking at is hidden cameras,” he told Postmedia.
Illegal dumping is an ongoing problem in places like the Chilliwack River Valley, where officers sometimes find abandoned vehicles, shell casings and piles of trash in forested areas and along waterways.
Stahl said dumpers usually fall into one of three categories, including “fly-by-night” contractors who toss building materials rather than disposing of them properly, partiers who leave bags of trash and empty beer cans, and residents who toss household trash off a quiet road rather than taking it to the dump.
Officers have also been finding more abandoned RVs and campsites in remote areas.
“Someone will take an old RV or camper and park it for a few months,” said Stahl. “The garbage around it keeps growing, and then one day, they’re just gone.”
The provincial government is left with the clean-up bill.
Volunteers clean up an abandoned campsite in the Chilliwack River Valley in early August. Illegal dumping and campsites are an ongoing problem in the B.C. backcountry.
“They leave a terrible mess behind,” said Chris Gadsen, a volunteer with the Fraser Valley Illegal Dumping Alliance, who organizes clean-up events on a regular basis.
Gadsen said he has spoken to volunteers who have encountered suspected chop shops and meth labs at camps on Crown land.
“The government has hired more conservation officers, so they deserve accolades for that, but we need even more enforcement if we want to see this improve,” he said.
Electoral Area E director Orion Engar said he plans to ask the provincial government for “more boots on the ground” at the upcoming Union of B.C. Municipalities meeting in September, repeating a request he has made for several years running.
“I don’t think it’s made a darn dent, but I’ll keep trying,” he said. “Our conservation officers are really hard-working folks, but they’re stretched very thin.”
The situation in the Chilliwack River Valley could be improved if the province began treating it like the recreation area it has become, installing garbage cans and toilets, rather than letting people fend for themselves, said Engar.
Orion Engar, the elected representative for Electoral Area E, with two buckets full of shell casings he recently collected in the Chilliwack River Valley.
Illegal dumping isn’t only a problem in backcountry areas.
Incidents are on the rise in Metro Vancouver, costing the region’s taxpayers millions of dollars each year. Data gathered by the regional district from member municipalities shows the number of incidents rose from 35,300 in 2015 to 43,800 in 2018. Over that same period, the cost to local governments to clean up the garbage went from $2.54 million to $3.2 million.
Each year, about half of the incidents took place in Vancouver. The number of reports of illegal dumping logged by the city’s 311 call centre has risen steadily over the years, from 17,000 in 2015 to 22,000 in 2018. The cost to taxpayers in 2015 was $1.3 million. In 2018 it was $2.1 million. Mattresses and furniture were the most frequently abandoned items.
Reports of illegal dumping on Crown land can be made to the provincial RAPP hotline (Report All Poachers and Polluters) at 1-877-952-RAPP or by completing an online form.
— with Postmedia files