County Board of Supervisors will consider big increases to illegal dumping fees.

Along some rural Monterey County roads, you can smell trash even before you see it. Bags of household garbage, tires, furniture and kitchen appliances getting dumped on the sides of isolated roads has been a longstanding issue. For decades, the Illegal Dumping and Litter Abatement Task Force – which includes local cities, county departments, waste haulers and community members – has worked to reduce it. They’ve used educational programs, informing residents about vouchers available to dispose of trash properly, and organized quarterly cleanups across the county. Yet still: “We don’t have a shortage of hot spots,” says Maria Ferdin, a supervisor with the Environmental Health Department, noting dark and isolated places are favorites for illegal dumping. In a largely rural county, there are many such places.

Illegal dumping is an expensive issue. Over a five-year period from 2017-2022, the County of Monterey spent $1.7 million on roadside cleanups, collecting 1,602,580 pounds of trash. “What else could we have used that money for?” Ferdin wonders.

That’s where efforts at prevention come in. County officials are now looking to increasing fines as a deterrent.

Current fines for illegal dumping range from $100 to $1,000 per offense. In neighboring San Benito County, fines increased in September from $100-$300 to $2,500 for the first offense, $5,000 for the second and $10,000 for a third offense.

Concerned that higher fines there could drive more illegal dumping over the county border, Monterey County is seeking to mirror San Benito’s fines in the near future. Ferdin says it’s too early to tell if illegal dumping near San Benito County has increased, but that it makes sense for counties sharing a border to have the same fine schedule.

In February, the Health Department brought the illegal dumping issue to the Monterey Board of Supervisors and proposed funding for a surveillance program, a pilot program in problematic areas and an illegal dumping study at a cost of $120,000 – which was scrapped after the flooding in Pajaro.

Environmental Health officials are currently working on a draft ordinance and a structure to implement penalties, especially because the Health Department would issue citations – not something typically part of their enforcement powers.

Meanwhile, they continue looking for ways to effectively discourage illegal dumping. The proposed ordinance could be back in front of the Board of Supervisors as early as January.