Illegal dumping a big problem in Southwest

      Elaine Baker said her neighborhood is becoming a dumping ground.
      Her 3-year-old home near Riley Street and Twain Avenue is surrounded by commercial and residential developments. Behind her backyard block wall is an empty lot that's full of mounds of dirt, metal stripping, gravel, roofing and landscaping material.
      She claims pool, landscaping and construction companies are using it as a garbage heap while they're building new homes and businesses around her.
      The lot is owned by the Ruth Stapleton Trust and is zoned for ranch estate homes, which is the underlying zoning of the entire county. No request to change the zoning for development has been filed at the Clark County Planning Department.
      For now Baker doesn't know what will be next door to her home, she just doesn't want it to be garbage.
      "If it's never cleaned up, people will think it's OK to dump there," Baker said.
      At night, from her upstairs bedroom, she said she can hear dump trucks unloading dirt and gravel behind her $200,000 home.
      "I'll do whatever it takes to get it cleaned up," she said.
      Since April, Baker has made three complaints to the Clark County Response Office, which investigates illegal desert dumping in the county.
      The case is still being investigated said Jim Foreman, manager of the Clark County Response Office.
      It's difficult to convict companies or individuals of illegal dumping because the investigators have to catch them in the act, he added.
      Foreman said incidents of illegal desert dumping have increased throughout the valley because of booming development.
      "Whenever there is a lot of expansion and development close by there is more dumping," he said. "It's just quicker for subcontractors to dump in a vacant lot than driving to the local dump."
      Thanks to a $100,000 grant from Silver State Disposal, Foreman's department has expanded this year and added two more investigators for a total of three.
      But that's hardly enough to keep up with the growing number of violations. This year investigators wrote only 30 tickets to companies and individuals for illegal dumping.
      Foreman's office also works with the Bureau of Land Management, which has the authority to write tickets, and the Clark County Health District, which has jurisdiction across the valley.
      Companies or individuals can be fined up to $3,000 if convicted of illegal dumping. People who help in getting convictions can receive half of the penalty as a reward.
      But in the end, it's usually the property owner who gets stuck with the clean-up bill, Foreman pointed out.
      Foreman said the best way to fight dumping is to call the health district at 385-1291 to report any illegal dumping.
      "Desert dumping is a problem. It's always been a problem," he said. "But it's not an epidemic."
      Baker said if the empty lots surrounding her neighborhood continue to collect trash, she'll start a petition drive to clean it up.