Trash piling up again in BLM

Trash piling up again in BLM's Cash Canyon

Sept. 9, 2000

By Janelle Holden
Journal Staff Writer

Wandering onto BLM land in the Cash Canyon/Stinking Springs area could be a health hazard for public-land users. For years, the area has been used as an illegal private dump, and despite community cleanup efforts the problem seems to have persisted.

Those who venture off the road along county roads 31 and 32 near County Road L will see a wasteland of rusted machinery, pop bottles, broken glass, animal carcasses, furniture, and shotgun shells.

For the most part, the garbage contains household items. Fortunately, it has yet to house biohazardous waste, officials said.

Long ago, Montezuma County’s landfill was located on part of the area that is now BLM land. But although political boundaries may have changed over the years, some residents’ memories have not.

The BLM lands provide easy access and free dumping for those either too lazy or too cheap to take their trash to the local landfill. To dump one truckload of trash at the county landfill costs $7.

In years past, the community has spotted the illegal detritus and worked with public-lands officials to clean up some of the worst spots. In 1995, the community helped officials clean a larger, historic trash midden in the area, and the county cleaned up the refuse approximately 12 years prior to those efforts.

"Even after they’re cleaned up, people go back there," said Bob Ball, a BLM range conservationist. "It’s just hard to wean them off of it."

Since the cleanup, trash has continued to pile up in bits and pieces off the side of the roads.

Lanny Wagner, a BLM law-enforcement officer, said he has tried stopping in the area at different times of the day and year to catch people in the act of discarding garbage. However, Wagner patrols 800,000 acres and said he can’t often can’t focus on the area as much as he would like.

Clues found in the trash will occasionally lead Wagner back to the perpetrator. "That’s the whole key, finding these things and trying to tie them back to somebody," Wagner said. "Most of the people are pretty wary and keep their names off of things they dump."

On one occasion, Wagner found trash with the name of a Merchant Marine sailor in it. He traced the man back to where he lives in San Diego, and confronted him when he moved back to Cortez the next summer.

The sailor told Wagner he had thought his trash was safely on its way to the county landfill. He had paid two men to dump it for him, but the men pocketed the money and took the trash to Cash Canyon instead. When the sailor found out what happened, however, he immediately agreed to clean up the trash, which was by then 18 months old.

Wagner said he catches a few people each year, most of whom were duped in a similar fashion.

Once he tracks a perpetrator, he cites the offender in federal court, and lets the magistrate decide how much to fine him or her. The fines usually run from $100 to $200 depending on the amount of trash found.

Officials acknowledge Cash Canyon is not the most scenic or unusual piece of BLM property. However, it is covered with sagebrush, juniper and grasses, and offers a clear view of Mesa Verde and Mt. Hesperus.

Ball and Wagner said the BLM does not allow trash-dumping on any parts of its land.

"I think that this place is just as special as places out in the new national monument," said Wagner.