Company cleaning up costly dumps in Westfield

“Basically people’s junk,” says Monty Hulan, a Forestry Technician with Freeman. He says if you can think of it, it’s probably there.

Now the responsibility falls on them to clean it up.

Hulan says it’s going to be costly to clean it up as well. The sites are not small so it will require a loader and an excavator, as well as two trucks to haul the garbage, and will take two days to clean up. At about $250 per hour for just the machinery, the cost will easily reach $4,000.

Freeman isn’t the only site in Queens Co. either. Region of Queens Municipal Clerk Chris McNeill says they know about a dozen exist. “I’m not sure how we compare to other municipalities, but even one dump is unfortunate. Solid waste collection is free in Queens Co., so there’s no cost to people to put out their garbage or deposit it at the landfill. There’s really no reason for people to dump in the woods,” says McNeill.

By-law officers will search through the dumps, looking for evidence of where it came from. If they do find names on papers or other identification, which McNeill says happens about half the time, they will track that person down. The person would be told to clean it up, face fines or both. Fines for a first offence range from $100 to $450.

However if they can’t find out who it is, or they refuse to clean it up, the responsibility falls on the landowner.

Hulan says when they clean the sites, they will be sifting through the materials to try and link it to somebody.

After cleaning up the sites, Freeman will be blocking off the roads to prevent it from happening again. Blocking the road will also mean cutting off access to a popular swimming hole in the area, but Hulan says they don’t have much choice if they want to prevent it from happening again.

Hulan believes the people didn’t target Freeman’s land, but rather it was just a convenient spot outside of the community to dump garbage. “People just didn’t want to spend that extra $10 in gas and go to the dump. They just put the burden on someone else,” says Hulan. “It’s not good environmentally to do that anywhere. People should take care and take it to the dump so it can be handled properly.”