A Cache of Trash : Illegal Dumping Plagues Remote Balcom Canyon

J.B. Stanley has often enjoyed a leisurely drive through Balcom Canyon.

But on a recent day, the 77-year-old Fillmore resident pulled over for a closer look into the verdant ravine’s steepest valley, at its summit just west of Moorpark. What he saw--dozens of rusted-out cars, junked mattresses, appliances, used oil filters and soil soaked with dirty motor oil--filled him with disgust.

“I drive by here several times a year and it just keeps getting worse,” Stanley said. “It’s like looking at a garbage dump.”

Long a favored dumping site for those seeking to discard truckloads of trash under the cover of night, Balcom Canyon in recent years has accumulated debris in grotesque proportions. The assortment of couches, mattresses and appliances that line its slopes is just part of the bewildering jumble of rotting debris--from children’s toys to containers of toxic chemicals.

The winding road that links California 118 with the north county communities of Fillmore and Santa Paula has become so polluted that one statewide environmental group recently named it one of the top five trashy canyons in the Los Angeles area. The refuse not only threatens native species that inhabit the area’s scrubland, it also presents a risk to public health, said Scott Mathes, executive director of the California Environmental Project.

Motor oil, antifreeze, paint and chemicals used in appliances are discarded into the canyon, where they eventually may seep into underground water basins and pollute sources of drinking water, Mathes said.

“It’s more than just an eyesore,” he said. “Sometimes what you can’t see hurts you more.”

Balcom Canyon came to the attention of the California Environmental Project, a nonprofit group devoted to cleaning the wilderness, after Mathes hiked through it.

He stopped counting the piles of wrecked automobiles when he got to 70, he said.

“It’s always perplexed me how people are so shocked at what is down there,” he said. “All you have to do is pull over at a turnoff and look down. It’s pretty easy to spot.”

Ventura County officials acknowledge there is a problem but say there is not much they can do to halt it.

There is little public money for cleanup efforts, and health officials are reluctant to go after the canyon’s private landowners for the tremendous costs involved in removing the junk, said Terry Gilday, a solid waste specialist in the county’s environmental health department.

“The property owners could be nailed for it, but they didn’t put the trash there,” Gilday said. “Joe Q. Citizen did.”

Illegal dumping has gone on for decades at Balcom and other remote areas where dumpers are lured by the chance to cheaply and easily dispose of refuse, he said.

What has changed is government’s ability to respond. Balcom was last cleaned 14 years ago in a joint effort by the county and the Ventura Regional Sanitation District, Gilday said.

But the federal dollars used to pay for that cleanup no longer are available, and state and local funds have also dried up, he said. Balcom presents an especially vexing problem because it is owned by several private landowners and the state forbids the expenditure of public funds for its cleanup, Gilday said.

He estimated it would cost the landowners $100,000 to remove the debris. Instead of demanding a total cleanup, county officials have simply asked property owners to remove hazardous materials, such as motor oil and cans of paint. Even that is hard to keep up with, Gilday said.

“Many property owners try very hard, but they simply lose the battle,” he said.

Illegal dumping is a crime punishable by fines up to $1,000 for a first offense. But it is hard to prosecute because dumpers must be caught in the act, said Gregory Brose, head of the district attorney’s environmental protection division.

Brose could recall only one case in the past three years brought to the district attorney’s office for prosecution. But charges were never filed because the dumper could not be positively identified, he said.

Prosecutors often rely on police and sheriff’s deputies to aid in investigation of illegal dumping. But law enforcement agencies are strapped for cash and can’t afford to send extra patrols to keep an eye on dumping sites, he said.

“We can still prosecute major environmental crimes,” Brose said. “But when it comes to offenses that affect the quality of life in this county, we don’t have the resources.”

As a result, the rubbish lies undisturbed for years, piling up in layers, Gilday said. The only way it gets cleaned up is when organizations like the California Environmental Project step in, he said.

Mathes said his group is planning to organize a cleanup of Balcom Canyon in the coming year. In the past four years, the group has used about 10,000 volunteers on projects to clean Little Tujunga Canyon and La Tuna Canyon in Los Angeles County, among others.

The California Environmental Project has also sponsored four smaller-scale cleanups in Ventura County. In the past two years, volunteers--many of them schoolchildren--have removed debris along the Ventura River, Mathes said.

He estimated it will take at least four months to clean all the refuse from Balcom Canyon. The group will probably have to hire heavy-duty tow trucks to pull out the cars because they are too far down for regular tow trucks to move, Mathes said.

The county recently installed barbed wire and built a dirt berm along the road to stop people from dumping their junk. While Mathes said that may cut down on dumping, it will not completely deter determined dumpers.

He pointed to an area where the barbed wire had been cut; in the canyon below the opening, shiny cars sat piled on top of rusting hulks. The county’s Gilday said the illegal dumping won’t stop until residents have a cheap and easy alternative to paying skyrocketing prices at landfills.

“We need a better trash-collection system that makes it easier to get rid of things like couches and refrigerators,” he said. “Otherwise, we can expect this to keep happening.”

NEXT STEP

The California Environmental Project is planning a cleanup of Balcom Canyon sometime this year. Volunteers are needed to help haul the refuse up the steep canyon walls. Educators interested in getting their classes involved and other volunteers should call Scott Mathes, executive director of the California Environmental Project, at (818) 500-1025.