The Squamish Conservation Officer Service is still investigating an incident last week where a Pemberton woman's massive pile of garbage that she'd paid two Whistler men to dispose of was illegally dumped near the Squamish landfill.
However officer Chris Doyle is taking advantage of the attention the incident received by reminding residents and non-residents of the regulations and repercussions of illegal dumping.
"Normally when we contact the offender we may give the person the option to clean it up, and it might be concluded with a warning or a violation ticket depending on the circumstances," he said.
He also encourages locals to follow resident Dale Horth's lead and report such incidents. Doyle said anyone who sees illegal dumping should gather as much information as possible and pass that information onto the conservation office.
"Most waste does have information - some of it is traceable, some of it is not traceable," said Doyle. "Occasionally we'll find the person responsible and other times the information that's in the waste just leads to a dead end, but it's worth it to try."
A mere three days after Free Dump Days, Horth found the garbage just outside the Squamish dump entrance adjacent to the woodlot he and his father run.
"With our woodlot being so close to the garbage dump I contend with this all the time," said Horth. "People are too lazy to just go right to the dump, they just dump it right here on our logging roads and we end up having to deal with it.
"It was free dump week just three days ago for crying out loud."
Doyle said this problem isn't limited to the dumpsite area, Squamish or even the Sea to Sky Corridor.
"Illegal dump sites are used frequently," said Doyle. "It's a continuous problem all over B.C. and sometimes it's just a bag of garbage and others it's large quantities."
Horth said he believes the problem will only get worse if Free Dump Days is cancelled, as expected.
"If they get rid of Free Dump Days there's going to be even more of this," he said. "There'll be garbage like this up every single logging road in Squamish and the district will end up having to pay to clean it up anyways."
Last week, Horth found a pile of garbage, including a dishwasher, a kiddie pool, cots, books, a coffee table and several bags full of receipts, paper and diapers.
He was so frustrated, he dug through the garbage bags to find the offender, and found documents with the name Tina Walt on it.
When contacted at her home in Pemberton, Walt said she was horrified by what happened.
"I hired two guys from Whistler to haul our junk away yesterday from Craigslist. I paid them to pick it up, hoping they would at least dump it legally. That's terrible."
Brock Wilson, one of two men Walt said she hired to pick up the garbage, said he gave the pile to a friend to bring to the dump. Wilson wouldn't disclose his friend's name -because "no one likes a rat" - and decided to take the blame for the incident and go clean it up himself on April 29.
"My buddy screwed me over but I'll just deal with it and go clean it up myself," said Wilson. "I hate people who dump garbage outside."
By 1 p.m. Thursday afternoon, Wilson was at the illegal dumping site piling the garbage back into his truck.
"I hope this makes everything alright," he said. "I figure if I come here and clean it up for him, hopefully I'll just get a slap on the wrist."
