Caltrans is asking for the public’s help after barrels of hazardous materials were illegally dumped at multiple locations along U.S. Highway 101 in Mendocino County.
According to a press release issued by Caltrans District 1, 19 barrels were removed Monday from an embankment near the Empire Rest Area, just south of Leggett. The hazardous waste cleanup was conducted with assistance from the California Highway Patrol, the Mendocino County Environmental Health Department, and Redwood Empire Hazmat Incident Response.
Caltrans estimates the cleanup and disposal cost at $30,000.
“Luckily, we’ve avoided any major environmental hazards thus far,” said Caltrans District 1 Hazardous Materials Manager Danny Figueiredo in the release. “At the cleanup site on Monday, the materials were only 10 feet away from dropping over a cliff with a drop of about 50 to 75 feet right into the creek. The creek has fresh running water, with fish, and that would have been disastrous.”
The illegal dumping incidents have been ongoing since November, with waste discovered twice in Hopland, once last month near Shamrock Ranch in Laytonville, and most recently south of Leggett.
“The evidence collected indicates that the materials found at all four sites originated from the Bay Area, possibly from an old construction or roof insulation company in Livermore,” Figueiredo stated.
Anyone with information or who has seen suspicious activity related to the dumping is urged to contact the California Highway Patrol at 707-932-6100.
Hope they trace the hazards back to the losers who don’t give a damn about the environment and permanent damage they have done. There’s probably a lot more out there that hasn’t been found yet. There should be severe consequences for the criminals who do this!
There are many hazardous materials, what exactly was dumped? Trace it back to its origin and hold them responsible!!
We put trail cameras in remote areas to watch and protect wildlife, why not use the same technology to protect and watch these area’s along our highways and any area prone to dumping. A picture or license plate number of the vehicle would help to put the clean up cost back on those people and not the tax payers.
Our constitution protects us from “Big Brother” using such surveillance to monitor our every move, as they do in China. Of course, if you are on private property, you can use such things, but things get a bit touchy in court if the surveillance is specifically to catch bad guys in a public space. We all hate this sort of thing as it leaves roads unsightly and potentially can leak fluids into our drinking water. I often pick up trash even sometimes larger things if I can find a way to get it to the truck. I have often wished there was an organization that would tackle such problems, but at the same time, who wants to take on such an unglamorous thing? It is a sad reality of our world that people are always willing to take the “cheap” way out if it can be found. It would only cost a few dollars to take it to a dump site, yet those barrels lay leaking whatever they once contained. On the flip side, when you consider we as a society dumped barrels full of nuclear waste in the water off of our coast, I suppose it is really all of us doing this.
Sadly, that’s not the case because it is considered that one does not have “a reasonable expectation of privacy” in a public space. Thus hi tech FLOCK cameras monitor almost all motor vehicle traffic on public roads.
So it’s literally cheaper to pay a couple guys to drive hours away, with all risk involved probably at night than to dispose of it properly nearby. That’s what I’m reading. That’s wild.