quote:
Originally posted by Carey
One of my biannual cleanups is at a gated beach, one of the "string of pearls" in Hilo.... it still has dumping.... so... I have no clue how to stop it... & it keeps happening.... cannot tell you the frustration I go through when we are pulling out some of the crap that is dumped there...
Thirty years ago, NYC was facing a crisis of illegal dumping. Persons caught illegal dumping faced fines in excess of $750 per incident and confiscation of vehicles used in illegal dumping. Despite having a unit of sworn Sanitation Police Officers patrolling and taking action against illegal dumpers, the problem was escalating exponentially.
After a careful review, NYC recognized that citizens, who were reporting illegal dumping in progress, should be allowed to act as a complainant and law enforcement action should be allowed based on their eyewitness testimony. But more often than not, people didn’t want to take time off from work to deal with the paperwork and required ECB appearance. So how do you encourage people to report illegal dumping and be willing to testify before the Environmental Control Board? Thus was born the NYC Department of Sanitation Illegal Dumping Bounty Program.
A portion of the fines collected for a violation was return as a bounty to the eyewitness who reported it and testified at ECB.
Since that date, well over 2,900 cities have successfully copied that program. Almost 40% of the violations issued results in immediate guilty pleas. Almost 85% of all Illegal Dumping bounty actions result in guilty convictions. The statutory minimum fines were raised to $1,500 or more for both the violator and operator of the vehicle if one was used. There are civil penalties to cover the cost of clean up. There are criminal sanctions when environmental or substantial loads are involved, and until such time as a person post a bond equal to the statutory violation, or they pay the imposed fine, their vehicle is impounded.
If it can work in thousands of other communities, it can work on Hawaii.
I propose the Hawaii County Council implement a similar Illegal Dumping Bounty Program with minimum statutory fines of $1,500 or more for illegal dumping and the impounding of vehicles used in illegal dumping. The County will return 50% of the final fine to the citizen who witnessed, documented, reported and assisted in conviction. A $1,500 fine would return $750 to the citizen. A $5,000 fine will net $2,500 to the citizen.
Now you tell me, how many people do you know (like they now have in many areas) who might make hunting illegal dumpers their job if they receive a Bounty?
