ILLEGAL ENTRANTS' RESIDUE Trash woes piling up

The Arizona Daily Star ^ | 08.24.2005 | Tony Davis

[Borax Queen]

Splayed in the desert just south of I-10 along Rita Road is an unruly collection of backpacks, flannel shirts, coats, water bottles, soft-drink cans, pill packages, toothbrushes and toilet paper rolls.

Shredded black plastic trash bags are stripped across ocotillo and creosote bushes.

Illegal entrants dumped this trash, Pima County officials say. Now the county wants help to clean it up along with at least five other such dumps near Tucson. The county Department of Environmental Quality has asked the state government and a tribe with casino money, the Gila River Indian Community, for $40,000 grants.

The money, to which the county would add $46,000 from its budget, would buy a loader to haul off the trash. It would also pay for containers to put it in, bilingual signs to mark the dump sites, and gloves, hats and vests for the workers who clean the dumps.

"Look how close we are to town," said K.C. Custer, a county environmental investigator, as he walked across the dump site lying across the interstate not far from the large Rita Ranch development. "That's what amazed me about this. It's getting worse. We used to find them only in remote areas."

On a recent visit, Custer, who hadn't been to this site for a month or two, was also amazed at the huge number - maybe 100 or more - of multicolored backpacks and coats around at the site. Many looked fresh.

"Have you ever seen so many backpacks in all your life?" he asked.

Many, many aluminum drink cans had Spanish product names such as "Jumex" and "Nectar De Fesa y Platano."

Illegal-entrant trash dumping has gone on in Southern Arizona for years. The Tohono O'odham Tribe has been struggling to keep up with and remove trash dumped on the reservation for a long time. It has estimated that the average desert-walking immigrant leaves behind 8 pounds of trash during a journey that lasts one to three days if no major glitches occur.

Assuming half a million people cross the border illegally into Arizona annually, that translates to 2,000 tons of trash that migrants dump each year.

That's minor compared with a total of 2,000 tons of all varieties of trash and garbage dumped daily or 730,000 tons dumped yearly at the city of Tucson's Los Reales landfill.

But the illegal dumping is unsightly, unsanitary and potentially dangerous to cattle or wildlife that could eat the plastic bags. Dumped in remote, scattered areas, it's also difficult to reach.

"We have found dead cattle with balls of plastic in them," said Gary Olson, administrator of the Tohono O'odham Tribe's solid-waste program. "The stomach system of a cow is such that it gets stuck in there. I have no idea how many times this has happened. We've just come across them."

Mainly, however, the trash is ugly, he said.

"It's a desecration of the land. With the O'odham people, where they identify so much with the environment, it further insults their culture," Olson said.

But only in the past two years has the county become aware of major trash dumps near the city, such as the one on state-owned land along the west side of Rita Road.

Last year, the county hauled off four trailer loads of similar trash in a day from a dump site at I-10 and Houghton Road. It was about one-third the size of the Rita Road site, Custer said.

The other such dumps he's aware of are in Green Valley along a wash, on both sides of Sandario Road near Ajo Way and on Marsh Station Road well east of Tucson. He said there must be more, but he can't be sure, since he's the county's only dump investigator for its 9,000-square-mile area.

"It's a nuisance. This food stuff is rat, mice and lice food," Custer said. "If a coyote or some other kind of wildlife gets hold of these prescription drugs, that's not going to do wildlife any good. When the water container breaks down and water gets out, it's a mosquito problem."

Authorities believe that some entrants leave behind backpacks, coats and other clothing items because they wish to quickly change into nicer clothes so they can blend in better with society, Olson said. Another factor: "Basically the smugglers are making them dump their stuff so they can fit more people into the vehicles," said David Gutierrez, acting assistant chief of the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector.

Using $100,000 in federal grants and $30,000 of its own money, the Tohono O'odham Tribe has cleaned 40 tons of trash from 84 sites in the past year, Olson said. Tribal authorities have also found soap, deodorant, cologne and various kinds of identification papers in the dumps, including birth certificates and plastic-laminated Mexican voting cards, he said.

Custer and Olson agreed that while grants will take care of part of the problem, the trash dumps won't go away until the U.S. government can dramatically reduce the number of illegal entrants.

"As long as there is a flow of people there will be trash left behind," Olson said.

By the numbers

$80,000

In grants is the amount the County Department of Environmental Quality has asked from the state and a tribe with casino money.

$46,000

The amount that the county would add from its budget to help with the cleanup initiatives.

2,000

Tons of trash is what migrants dump each year, assuming 500,000 people illegally cross the border annually.

[Borax Queen]

All the mountain ranges are getting trashed, and yesterday when the rivers flowed, they were clogged with debris from illegal aliens. There was always some litter from the people coming over to "just work," but over the last six years, it has started to look 3rd world around here.

[Borax Queen]

The trash is a good indicator of the 3rd world conditions we are falling into as the border moves north.

[jackbenimble]

Check my tagline

[TheBigB]

They're just doing the littering that Americans won't do!

[Blood of Tyrants]

If we allow illegal immigration to continue unchecked, we WILL be a third world country.

[McGavin999]

Drive down the streets of Phoenix, once the cleanest city on the planet, and you'll see trash scattered everywhere. I was stunned the other day as I looked around an beautiful old neighborhood that used to be pristine all the time and now looks like a third world cesspool.

[chris1]

All while Rome burns.

[norton]

They have a good opportunity to save money by deleting the bilingual signs to mark the dump sites..(!)

[Kenton]

Sounds like a good community service project for any illegals they pick up.

[Dallas59]

Send the bill to President Fox.

[rabidralph]

We should get some of those superguns that they use to fling pumpkins, and launch (all) the trash back over the border.

[Mike Darancette]

Can we arrest them for littering?

[sportutegrl]

We need to build a Great Wall of China type wall. It would actually save money. O'Reilly said last night that 30% of inmates convicted of violent crimes are illegals. Maybe we could start a march on Washington or a letter writing campaign to build a wall.

[bk1000]

"but over the last six years, it has started to look 3rd world around here."

Yep, it's gonna get worse too. These people are going to keep coming as long as they can make 10 times the Mexican wage, get free health care, free education, and possibly a ranch. We can't deport millions of people. We have to make them leave on their own. The only solution is to not hire illegals and punish those who do. Anybody that hires one even to cut their grass is part of the problem.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Send the bill to President Fox.

No. Send the bill to Crawford, Texas.

[HiJinx]

There was always some litter...

Oh dear, Tucson, wake up...

I don't mean that to sound harsh, but there's no other way. Arizona has 2 major counties - Pima and Maricopa - where I'd guess more than 75% of the state lives. Pima County - Tucson - has finally awoken to the environental tragedy that Cochise County - Sierra Vista, Tombstone, Bisbee, Douglas, and the border - has been living with for the last 5 years. We have over a thousand a day crossing the border here, which means we're looking at 4 tons of trash daily dumped in our back yards. And that's nothing compared to the human waste that coats the Coronado National Forest, the San Pedro River, and the Huachuca Mountains.

The good news is that it's now happening in a location that matters to the powers that be. Maybe...just maybe...somebody will wake up to this catastrophe.

Sorry for the rant...this article really struck a nerve.

[television is just wrong]

Collect the trash and deliver it to McCain's office.

[television is just wrong]

I agree. We cannot bring them up, but they can bring us down.

[HiJinx]

We did that two years ago.

[television is just wrong]

Do it again. More trash bigger impact. And the area will be clean.