Litter mars Hay Flats Recreation Area

PALMER HAY FLATS -- Trash ranging from a burned car to sofas and even pig intestines has been discarded near the western entrance to the Palmer Hay Flats Recreation Area.

R.K. Butts of Wasilla said he noticed the mess about two weeks ago at the Cottonwood Creek access off Hayfield Road. He took several photos, including one showing a slaughtered pig's entrails just a few feet from Cottonwood Creek.

"What kind of a two-legged pig does this to a public access site?" Butts asked in a letter to the Frontiersman.

Other photos show a rusted car riddled with bullet holes, and a swing set frame with a metal disc hanging as an apparent shooting target.

Unfortunately, such scenes aren't uncommon in the Mat-Su Borough. Ken Hudson, chief code compliance officer for the borough's Planning Department, said his office gets more complaints about illegally dumped trash than any other offense.

"The borough has its problems because we have so many roads where it's easy to get by yourself," he said. "And we seem to have more than our share of folks who think it's OK to do this sort of thing."

The borough has regulations prohibiting public nuisances, although Hudson said it was only four years ago that such laws were added. He said the borough issued 16 citations for trash dumping during the last four months. The offense carries a fine of $50 to $300 but is hard to prove in court, Hudson said.

"We are prosecuting folks where we have a reasonable chance of winning," he said, "but we have to prioritize our efforts based on our resources."

Hudson believes the borough is suffering growing pains, shedding its past identity as a rural outpost where burning or burying trash on one's own property had little impact on neighbors. Now, as subdivisions spring up with lots smaller than an acre, there's more potential impact to water and air.

"For years, people buried their trash on site," Hudson said. "We still have some folks who do that. We have folks who keep material in open trailers for months or years before they go to the landfill. Then we have people who take it to these out of the way sites.

"What makes perfect sense in Skwentna is not appropriate in the rapidly developing urban area."

He said code compliance is doing all it can to curb the problem. However, the office only has two employees in addition to Hudson to police the borough's 65,000 residents.

"Plus the people who haul their stuff out here from Anchorage," Hudson said.

If code compliance gets a tip about someone dumping trash, officers hear a common response, he said. The alleged perpetrator says they gave their son or friend $20 to haul the garbage to the landfill but somehow it never ends up there, Hudson said.

Still, he wants citizens to report instances of trash dumping to his office by calling 745-9853. He'll add them to already voluminous files.

"We have more than 100 of these puppies already going," Hudson said.