RM of Edenwold fights back against illegal dumping

The RM of Edenwold istired of being dumped on andisdoing some detective work to try to stop it.

Ron Roteliuk, a community safety officer in the rural municipality, told CBC's Blue Skythe illegal dumping of garbage is a bigproblem in the area.

It is particularly bad at the end of the month, when people move.

Roteliuk says the quiet gravel roads outside the city are a tempting spot to ditch trash and avoid paying to take it to a municipal dump.

However, that doesn't stop him from searching for the culprits.

In one case, Roteliuk sorted through 20 bags of garbage, includingdirty diapers, to find something with an address.

When he finally found a bank statement, he called the people and a woman told him her garbage had been stolen.

"I told her, I said that I did believe her. That it's very possible. But that I was going to issue her a ticket and then she could see if she could convince a judge that somebody stole her garbage," Roteliuk said.

He says the woman decided to drive out and pick up the garbage instead.

In another instance, Roteliukdrove some of the garbage back to the address he found inside it.

He was waiting there, when the homeowners returned.

"When I told them that I'd found their property at first they were very, very happy. Until they got to have a look at it in their driveway," Roteliuk said.

That's when the woman's smile dropped.

He told her there were five more loads out in the rural area and he would deliver them the next day, along with a $580 fine unless it was picked up.

Roteliuk says the woman's husband called that night and told him, "'You don't have to bring back the rest of that property. I'll take care of it.' I said that would be nice. Thank you."

Issue of paid dumping

Roteliuk said not everyone is dumping their own garbage in the ditches.Sometimes peoplepay othersto take trash to the dump, but it doesn't always make it there.

He said he's found bags oftrash containing papers withmultiple different names and addresses at the same illegal site.

"I assume that somebody's probably got a business or they're landlords," he said.

Roteliuk recommends peopletake down contact information of anyone theypay to pick up theirgarbage, in case it doesn't make it to the dump.

He also says people should shred theirbills, financial information, andany documents containing their names, although that could make it difficult for him to connect wayward trash to its original owners.