Cleaning up illegal dump sites costly
Club Road in Harrietsfield littered with trash
Cleaning up illegal dump sites is costing the province a lot of money, but officials say it’s tough to prosecute those who unload garbage along back roads in Nova Scotia.
On Thursday provincial crews collected trash along Club Road in Harrietsfield. The three-day cleanup is costing $450 an hour.
"The money that we spend here could be better spent on gravel on the road, ditching, culvert replacing, asphalt patching," says Hugh Burns, an operations supervisor with the Department of Transportation.
"But we're spending approximately... $10,000 here. It's a total waste of money."
Last year the province prosecuted just four cases of illegal dumping. The province says it’s hard to prove who’s tossing the garbage.
Things are worse than ever along Club Road, which sits near a popular fishing area.
"Why they dump here, I have no idea,” says Russell Cox, who has been fishing in the area for four decades. "They wouldn't dump it in their backyard, but they dump it here. We're the people out here that have got to live with it."
The province is trying to put a stop to the problem and is installing a gate to restrict truck traffic along Club Road.