Cleaning up after a true slob

[Soundguy]

The firm I work for is widening and repaving some roads in a few of the run down sections of town. With this, we have to relocate and reform the swales ( backslopes - county right-of way ). You wouldn't believe what we are going to have to clean up on the sides of the road. I walked just one section yesterday, and found: pieces of vehicles, radios, clothes, gloves, contraceptives, unknown quantities of glass beer bottles, soda bottles, cans, and plastic containers, full bags of trash, childrens toys, and pieces of toys, etc, etc. Not spread out either, one long continous slicker of trash discarded on the side of the road and in the drainage ditches.

It is no wonder why this area is 'the run down area' of town... people are using their own back yards as dumps.... it just kills the area. Hurts everybody.
Due to the area, the city/county is not engineering the roads as if it were in some other section ( they are trying not to spend as much money in these areas, as evidenced by the overlay of some existing old roads. These old roads have varying widths from 23' to 12' in some areas, wind around trees and fences out in the right of way, etc. In any other case, the county would have the trees removed, make the fences be relocated, and average out the width of the road to a uniform size.... but no.. we are reclaiming the old base material, and relaying asphalt to the existing dimensions.. seriously, ther is one section of road that is 12' wide... for both lanes.... it is lunacy!

Soundguy

<font color=blue>"former owner used his own backyard as a garbage dump. He'd just pile up garbage, and when it got too high he'd burn it and start a new pile. He's been doing this for over 20 years and some of the stuff is has sort of rusted its way back into the soil. So how would try cleaning this mess up? "

 

[Golfgar4]

Don't think the problem is just in the rural setting!

Last year, we had a sewer back-up called in that affected 2 different homes. Our Utility crew went out to see what was going on and correct the problem. When they opened up the manhole, they found large chunks of concrete and asphalt, a bunch of 2x4's, a lawn chair, and a Weber grill! Yeah, I think that will cause a blockage!!/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

It amazes me the things that people will throw down manholes, or try to flush down the commode!/w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

 

[Soundguy]

While in college for civ. eng., I made a few visits to our local primary effluent plant. And yeah, your right.. you wouldn't believe what people put into the municipal sewage system. The screens clog up daily...Apparently some people think that foil packets, and latex -disolves- when wet... plastic applicators too... go figure.

Soundguy

 

[DavidInNH]

I used to be on the BOD of a Municipal Utility District when I lived in Texas. We scheduled extra help to skim the latex on Saturday mornings. Friday night was pretty lucky...

-david

 

[8NTX]

I can surely relate to your problem. About 18 months ago, we bought 18 acres of woods with a tractor shed on it. About 4 or 5 acres had become a public dumping ground of sorts, and the previous owner had tons of old rotten lumber, cabinets, furniture and junk in the shed. In addition, there were two old wooden storage buildings that had fallen down. We hauled off an old flatbed truck, stripped Trans-Am, and boat. Gave an old mobile home to a young couple in need of a place to live. Hired a dozer operator to bury the rest of the junk, after I went through it and picked out the potentially harmful items such as paint and chemicals. The dozer dug a hole about 8 ft. deep, 10 ft. wide and 40 ft. long. The whole operation took him about 4 hours, but it was worth it. I then paid about $500 to a junk hauler to clean up scattered trash piles all over the place. I didn't find anything too alarming, but apparently the trash is why the place wouldn't sell for 6 months. Afterwards, the place turned out to be worth about twice what I paid for it. Turned out to be a good deal for me, all because people were scared of the trash situation.

 

[Bird]

Steve, I guess it's common. When I bought this place, there was a 15' deep tank (or pond for you Northerners) that wouldn't hold water, so the prior owner used it for a garbage dump, let a friend in the roofing business use it to dump his scrap, etc. There were shingles, wood scraps, an old TV, a water heater, and even an old leaky fiberglass boat in there. And the sides were quite steep, so it was quite a job with a B7100 pushing it all down to the bottom and then filling it in. There was also an old carport built with an odd combination of wood, steel, and glass that had partially burned. My brother and I spent a whole day tearing it down, loading all the scrap on a trailer and taking it to the landfill.

 

[mbsil]

Be wary of your little garbage dump as it relates to your well, your neighbors' wells and the water table.

Dig big hole, push stuff in and fill over may seem simple, but now you're potentially contaminating your drinking water.

If you must do the landfill thing, think about a liner of some sort to minimize contaminant transfer.

When you go to sell the property, the home inspector will take note of anything on the property that might impact the water source.

 

[bgott]

How much did it cost to take it to the landfill? The last time I took a load to BFI here in Houston it cost $160, $10 a yard. I have a 16' lowbow that I put 4' sides on for a trash trailer. Now, I hauled a load out of my mom's place and took it to League City over by where she lives and they only charge $5.95 a yard and they figured the trailer at 14 yards. League City isn't too far to haul my stuff to save $80. League City dump is also a type 4 landfill, there is no wet rotten garbage so my truck didn't smell like the dump for 3 days later. No city compactors so I didn't have to worry about some idiot backing over me or my truck. Nobody watching you so I managed to pick up some neat stuff. It pays to shop for everything, even dumps!

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>It pays to shop for everything, even dumps!</font color=blue>

Yep, prices vary. I managed to pile the remains of that carport on a 5' x 10' trailer about 4' deep. There is a privately owned landfill in the area that most of the commercial garbage haulers use and they wanted $40 to dump there, but the Corsicana city landfill charged me $10, but of course that was over 7 years ago so I'm not sure what the charge would be now. The city and county have an annual one day "clean up" campaign each year (last Saturday this year) when you can dump anything free. Except for that one day, there are restrictions on what they'll take; i.e., no tires, refrigerators, etc. And there's always a long line of pickups and trailers there from 7 a.m. on (and this is the first time in 7 years that I wasn't in that line/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif).

I still think our politicians are nuts. For many years, I lived in Farmers Branch, Carrollton, and Dallas when you could dump free anytime just by showing a drivers license or utility bill showing that you lived in that city. Now they charge high fees and complain about the trash everywhere in yards, on the streets, illegal dumping along country roads, etc.

It's gotten so ridiculous that when I was working for the city, and the police auto pound was part of my responsibilities, I had to budget for money to pay the Streets and Sanitation Department to get rid of the trash from city property (one city department paying another). Even when it was a city owned truck going into the landfill, the driver had to stop at the gate and pay cash to get in. I finally contracted with a private garbage collection company to haul the debris and the city council wanted to know why I was paying a private company when the city had their own garbage trucks. I told them it was because it was cheaper, and never heard a word from them again./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[bgott]

I don't have a problem with refrigerators or any scrap metal. Just set 'em on the side of the street and some junker will pick them up. I can clean out a trailer house and have a pile of stuff as tall as me and the people around here will go through it and take half of it, broken furniture and old ragged clothes and anything they think they can sell at a yard sale. I have about 8 trash cans I fill up and set at different places so the trashmen will take them. I've also set by a large trash pile on trash day with a case of beer until they show up and watched an amazing amount of trash disappear. About once every six months I do a major clean- up and that's when the trailer comes in handy.