Illegal dumping grounds develop in the wake of Rita

BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) - In the aftermath of Hurricane Rita, Beaumont residents were allowed to dispose of debris from the storm's destruction by leaving it for pick up at the nearest street corner or vacant lot.

But nearly three years after the hurricane hit, these spots have become illegal dumping grounds.

Travis Grisby and his wife live in a house with a neat, nicely landscaped yard facing one of these lots. He often finds that trash has been dumped there when he wakes up or when he gets home from work.

"I am tired of it," Grisby, a 43-year-old car salesman, said in Thursday's edition of The Beaumont Enterprise. "It's getting kind of irritating."

Beaumont code enforcement supervisor Joyce Tanner said battling illegal dumping has been a challenge, as people have pushed the envelope of the post-Rita period when the city picked up anything anywhere.

Rita landed in Sabine Pass on Sept. 24, 2005, packing 120 mph winds that flattened the coastal hamlet before splaying into East Texas and lashing western parts of Louisiana. At least nine were killed, and thousands of homes, including ones in Beaumont, were destroyed.

To help stop the illegal dumping, officers are putting on gloves and sifting through the refuse, looking for invoices, envelopes or other paperwork that might identify the violators, Tanner said.

But unless someone catches the offenders in the act, it can be difficult to cite them, she said.

Fines for littering range from $50 to $1,000.

Tanner said city judges no longer accept hurricane-related excuses for littering.

"The judges are saying, 'The storm is gone. It's been almost three years. Rita is over - now we need to move on,'" she said.

Tanner said she suspects unscrupulous contractors or employees dump stuff illegally to avoid paying the fees to get rid of it at the city landfill.