Illegal garbage dumping plagues Bodenburg Butte, angers residents

BODENBURG BUTTE - If you are considering bypassing the dump and throwing your trash along the road in Bodenburg Butte, be warned: folks in the Butte are mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore.

Angered by people carelessly and illegally trashing their community and frustrated by the apparent difficulty in enforcing the Mat-Su Boroughs law against dumping on borough property, some Butte residents decided to do something about it.

While walking in the woods by his Caudill Road home, Bob Thomas discovered a disgusting, although all too familiar, sight. Someone had thrown 55 bags of household garbage in a pine tree-ringed clearing. Inside the strewn garbage bags were hundreds of beer bottles, dirty disposable baby diapers, cat litter, and mounds of cigarette butts.

His wife, Sandy Thomas, said she doesnt like to walk in her beloved woods anymore because of the trash left behind by other people.

I used to take my dogs out walking, but I cant anymore. Theres broken glass and cans all over Im afraid the dogs will cut their feet, Sandy Thomas said.

Just four months ago, approximately 20 local volunteers and 40 National Guardsmen hauled away eight dump truck-loads of garbage, 70 abandoned cars and a dozen commercial refrigerators from borough land and around the Jim Creek area, said Jim Cox, a member of the Butte Community Council. Just three weeks later, four more refrigerators appeared in the same spot the volunteers had cleared.

Im thinking the dumping is a lack of caring, a lack of concern. Were tired of it, Sandy Thomas said.

Cox went to the illegal dumping site and did a little investigating. What he found among the heaps of trash were documents with several names on them including credit card applications, bank statements and correspondence from the state of Alaska.

Armed with photographs of the trash and names on the documents, Jim Courtney, secretary for the Butte Community Council, posted the information on the Butte community news Web site. The evidence was then forwarded to the Alaska State Troopers and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

Sandy Thomas called the Frontiersman to complain about the trash, and the Bodenburg Butte Community Council drafted letters to the people whose name were discovered on the documents, informing them about the trash and writing that it, would probably be a good idea to make arrangements for removal of the trash before too much time has elapsed.

Roger McRoberts, resource management specialist for the Mat-Su Borough, also sent an enforcement order to the addresses provided by the community council.

On Friday morning, the Frontiersman called a woman whose name was found among the items in the trash bags. The woman told the Frontiersman she had no knowledge about the illegal dumping, but admitted that she had brought some trash to the home of a relative who lives in the Butte area in order to have it burned.

Approximately two hours later, she called the Frontiersman and said she had taken the 55 trash bags in question to the dump.

On Sunday, a member of the Butte community council informed the Frontiersman that a new load of garbage had been dumped in the very same spot.

Trooper Capt. Don Savage, at a meeting of the Butte community council last week, said state budget cuts have made it impossible for troopers to nab people who illegally dump their garbage.

Ken Hudson, the boroughs chief of code compliance, said enforcement is costly and the goal is for violators to voluntarily comply with the law and clean up their garbage.

It costs money to pursue people. The borough has spent lots of money cleaning up junk and trash only to have it come back on its property, Hudson said.

Public attitudes and tolerance of illegal dumping has to change, he said, and the Butte residents pursuit of the people who trashed their neighborhood is right on track.

People ask how can the borough stop people from doing this? I say Give me some suggestions. Anything enforcement does is after the fact. Public attitude is very helpful, he said.

Butte citizens have no plans to give up the battle to keep their community litter-free and safe.

Cox said next spring dozens of signs will be erected around the Butte telling visitors that they are welcome to enjoy their community, but to please respect it. Plans for organizing a community watch are in the works, and weekend get togethers of Butte folks around Jim Creek are planned so others will know they are paying attention.

We are going to make our presence felt. This is our community and the dumping and the shooting problems wont be tolerated, Cox said.Photo: The ongoing illegal dumping problem in the Bodenburg Butte area has locals angry and fighting back. This pile of garbage was found off Caudill Road. Although it was cleaned up on Friday, by Sunday another load of garbage appeared in the same spot.

Photo by JO C. GOODE.