Austin Code busy with illegal dumping as trash piles up outside wildlife sanctuary

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Doug Ballew has been pushing pedals for a long time.

“I’ve been a recreational and competitive cyclist,” Ballew said. “I raced for about 20 years.”

He knows how to pick his playground and the hilly roads framing the east side of Lake Walter E. Long in east Austin have an appeal.

“In the mornings, there’s hardly any cars at all,” he said. “So that’s one of the reasons I love riding out here.”

And the other reason, he said, is the setting. “The scenery out here is very pretty," the Mueller resident said.

Though lately, Ballew has had to back-pedal on that assessment because he’s been trekking past all kinds of nasty trash dotting the landscape he loves so much.

“I see tires,” he said. “Construction material, we got a little bit of everything.”

Even bags of discarded coconuts.

And at the Barrera Indiangrass Wildlife Sanctuary on Blue Bluff Road, there’s a large mound of trash, with furniture, toys, and other household items, piled in front of the entrance.

“I’d like to see some kind of efforts to prevent it from happening in the first place,” Ballew said. “There could be even game cameras set up, you know, little game cameras that are mounted in a tree could catch license plate numbers or catch people dumping.”

The Austin Development Services Department Code Compliance tells KXAN Investigator Mike Rush it does use cameras, more than 30 that it can place throughout the city. And sometimes, that secret footage does uncover some clues.

“We’ve been successful in many other locations,” said Robert Alvarado, a division manager with Austin Code Compliance, referring to the camera surveillance efforts. “It curbed it, but it didn’t make it go away.”

Alvarado said the area Ballew is referring to, which includes Blue Bluff Road, Lindell Lane and Bloor Road, is a hot spot for dumping.

“This area specifically is chronic for, as a high volume of illegal dumping,” he said.

Those roads, he said, are remote but easy to access. Alvarado said there have been around seven reported violations in that area within the last year and a surveillance camera is out there now for three active cases on three roads.

He said the city is in the process of cleaning up the area.  One estimate, he said, is $6,000 to haul trash from just one of the three roads.

But Alvarado told KXAN illegal dumping is a citywide problem. When asked how many 311 calls the city gets with complaints about illegal dumping, Alvarado responded, “Somewhere in the 30,000 calls.”

The longtime code enforcement officer said while there’s a staff of more than 60 employees in the field, they respond to all sorts of code violations, not just dumping.

So, patrolling to prevent illegal dumping is not feasible.

“We’re mainly reactive,” Alvarado said. “Code department is not tasked with controlling what people are doing, we’re reacting to violations of code.”

Ballew questioned why there aren’t any “no dumping” signs on the trash-filled roads.  

Alvarado said his team does plan to put “no dumping” signs in the area, but said the signs have been there before and disappear or are ignored.

“We’ve actually seen a couple of people use it as a thing to prop their illegal dumping on the sign,” he said.  

It’s a vicious cycle, Ballew believes might be best solved with better behavior.

“Let’s keep these areas, our natural areas, natural and pristine,” Ballew said.  

Alvarado said calling 311 is the best way to report illegal dumping.

He said a code enforcement officer will usually assess the area within five days. The process to get trash cleaned up varies based on whether it’s on city or private property but can generally take up to two months.

Illegal dumping, Alvarado said, is a ‘Class C’ misdemeanor in Austin, with a fine of up to $2,000.