An administrator in the state Energy and Environment Cabinet says progress is being made in cleaning up illegal dumps and litter abatement across the state. County and city governments have until November to apply for grant funding in those two areas.
State Environmental Scientist, Lisa Evans, says local governments use funds in various ways for litter cleanup along public roads. “Some counties use it with road departments cleaning the roads, other use it with the jail, along with inmates, and then others use it when they can contract with no profit groups to pick up litter,” said Evans.
Evans says $5 million dollars is available annually for litter abatement grants. Although there has been an occasional spike, Evans says there’s been a general decline in county applications to address significant illegal dumps over the past dozen years. “The illegal open dump grant program went into effect in 2006. Since that time we have seen a decline each year for the number of dumps applied for and basically seeing a decline in the amount of funding we’re having to spend on them,” noted Evans.
Evans says an illegal open dump is defined as two cubic yards of consolidated waste. She says a local match in funds is required to participate in the open dump grant program. Evans says that match can be waived in cases exceeding $50,000. Evans says there’s typically about four to five illegal dumps fitting that criteria each year.
