Letter to the Editor: Dumping 'epidemic'

I have lived almost my entire life here in rural Wasco one mile away from where I was born at the peak of the “Dust Bowl.”

In the last 25 years a problem has become of epidemic proportion – the dumping of city waste onto roadsides of our valuable farmland.

The cities of Wasco and Shafter do a good job of keeping the waste hauled to our county dump and recycling center located within a few miles from both cities.

The dumps are well run and have a staff of very helpful employees to assist you when you take your load to the dump, and the hours they are open are convenient.

This is why, we, your rural neighbors are so frustrated when week after week we find an assortment of broken furniture and appliances dumped along and within our cropland. It is an additional expense and waste of time and labor to have to reload and haul these items to the dump when it was hauled to our farms in the first place.

Maybe if the cities set up large dumpsters that citizens could have access to for the appliances and mattresses, and instead of dumping it on us, it could be moved to the dump like the normal refuse the city already handles.

We would hope our city neighbors would please show us the common courtesy of not trashing our fields any more than if we came and dumped our waste in your front yards!

VERN CRAWFORD

Wasco