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Council has answered the call and sent in a team to clear up a stinking pile of rubbish on our city’s outskirts.
A report and pictures of a huge load of household garbage was sent to the City of Whyalla by a local resident on Tuesday. It was located on a bush track about 2km from town and parallel to the Iron Knob Road.
Although this is not council-controlled land and not council’s responsibility to clean up, officers from the City of Whyalla had no hesitation organising for its removal and a clean-up of the site.
A council officer met with the residents on Wednesday evening to locate and inspect the area. A crew from council contractors, Wesley Social Enterprises Inc, then jumped into action today (Thursday, January 25) to remove the rubbish.
BEFORE AND AFTER: The rubbish dumped on a track near Iron Knob Road and after council organised for its removal.
Council has gathered evidence from the site and will be looking to identify the person or persons who dumped the rubbish with a view to issuing expiation notices.
Manager Environmental Health and Regulatory, Samantha Bowman said that while rubbish in this area wasn’t council’s responsibility, something simply needed to be done immediately to prevent the rubbish spreading further and creating even further environmental damage.
“We couldn’t sit back and just leave this sort of rubbish laying around in this area, a lot of Whyalla residents use this area to walk or exercise their dogs,” Ms Bowman said.
“Apart from not being a good look and upsetting for people using these tracks, this was an area under trees where a lot of kangaroos and other wildlife rely on for shelter … we’re sure they wouldn’t appreciate having dirty nappies and rotting household garbage fouling the area.
“That fact that most of this rubbish was suitable for the regularly collected red bins, makes it an even bigger disappointment.
“We’d like to thank the residents who notified us of this disgusting act and we’ll be talking with other government authorities on how we can have these incidents cleaned up in future and, more importantly, how he can put measures in place to minimise the incidents of this happening.
“We’d like to thank Wesley Social Enterprises Inc for their prompt action too in dealing with this situation.”
Fines of up to $1000 can be issued to residents illegally dumping and significantly higher for industrial waste.