VIDEO: Illegal Dumping Has Become A Big Problem In One Local County

WINSTON COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)-A smelly situation is developing in Winston County.

Piles of trash are stacked along many county roads, creating an eyesore for the community, and a headache for leaders.

“We have several county road that aren’t driven regularly, and people use those roads as dump sites,” said Winston County Sheriff Jason Pugh.

Sheriff Pugh tells WCBI, they’re trying to promote economic growth in Winston County, and this illegal dumping isn’t helping with that.

“The things you’re find in these dump sites are unreal, and basically it’s people that don’t want to take things to the dump to pay to have them disposed of properly,” the sheriff said.

These images have now created an eyesore for the community.

“It’s embarrassing for the residents who live here to drive down that road and see that kind of trash laying everywhere and that garbage,” the sheriff explained. “It’s literally to the point that you can drive by one of those sites and have it cleaned up, and a week later come back again and it’s in as bad of a shape, if not worse shape than when you started.”

Pugh said one of the problems they’ve run into is out-of- towners coming into town dumping trash, then leaving county leaders to deal with the big mess.

“I’ve run into people that are being paid to haul things to the dump for other parties, and instead of taking it to the dump, using the money they were given to dispose of it,” the sheriff recalled. “They’re taking you out there and throwing it on the side of the road and pocketing the money.”

The cost for county leaders to clean up the trash is expensive.

Pugh said When people dump their trash illegally, they’re hurting the community in more ways than they think.

“The problem is that there tax dollars turn right back around and have to dispose of it,” he said. “The equipment, the people that oversee the inmate workers, none of that comes free. When they’re out there working trying to clean up one of those spots. it’s our taxpayers dollars that are touting the burden of that.”

County leaders are also running into people throwing out their deer caucuses as well.

Now they’ve come up with a new solution to tackle this growing problem.

“Some of our supervisors I believe are putting some cameras up on some of the sites to see if they can catch somebody that is throwing stuff out there,” said Pugh.

If anyone is caught dumping trash illegally, they can be fined up to $500.

Winston County Board president Luke Parkes has a drop off container in his barn for residents.

They can come by and drop of their trash and he’ll haul it away to the city dump.