WASHINGTON — Illegal dumping in D.C. is an ongoing problem and neighbors in the District are fed up.
One 15-year resident in Ward 8 said he caught a person in the act of illegally unloading trash in his alley Friday morning. The dumping is nothing new, he said, but it's rare to see it happening.
"I was throwing away my trash, and I just looked out, and I just saw a whole lot of debris," Abdur-Rahim Briggs said. "I just opened the gate to here, and this is the area where they had couches and debris from roofs, you name it, it was out here. It’s like a dumping ground.”
Looking at DC data showing 311 calls for service for illegal dumping, the District received more than 1,000 requests in the past 30 days. That same data shows more than 12,000 calls in 2019.
The Director of the Department of Public Works, Chris Geldart, said with two to three inspectors per ward regularly monitoring the problem, they're working on keeping the alleys clean.
“They literally go out there to investigate," Geldart said over the phone Friday.
"A lot of times what we’ll do is we’ll find boxes and trash bags. They’ll literally open up the trash bags and try to find a couple of different things that will lead them to the address so they can go ask questions about why."
In this case, Briggs snapped a picture of the person he said was dumping and gave it to officials. Geldart said the accused could be looking at thousands of dollars in fines.
“It’s an environmental issue," Briggs said. "I believe all the alleys in ward 8 and east of the river need to be totally redone.”
The mayor devoted $430 million to fixing the District's roads, sidewalks, and alleys in the FY19 budget. It is unclear at this point which specific projects received the funding.
“We want our city to be as clean as possible," Geldart said. "Also those things can become harbingers for all sorts of things like rats and raccoons…you know it can create a pretty big nuisance in an area if it’s left there for a while."
He urges anyone who notices illegal dumping to report it to Public Works using 311.
“Part of the responsibility does fall on us to say something and to let them know and to be their eyes and ears as well," Briggs.said.