SYLMAR : Crew Picks Up After Illegal Dumpers

As Jose Moreira found out Thursday, some mistakes really stink.

Moreira and 11 other members of a cleanup crew spent the day removing tons of unwanted couches, televisions and other garbage illegally dumped over the Memorial Day weekend along a 100-yard stretch of railway at Old San Fernando Road and Polk Street in Sylmar.

The mess was caused by Moreira’s crew, which was contracted by Metrolink to clear debris from the railway.

Hoping to get an early start Tuesday, the crew left a massive pair of waste bins at the site Friday night. But the empty bins only lured illegal dumpers, prompting company officials to realize their mistake, albeit a little late. “Yeah, it was a mistake. But who knew?” said Walter Prince, a spokesman for Red Carpet Building Maintenance, which contracts Moreira’s crew to Metrolink.

“Good lord, you can leave a trash container out and you can expect someone might throw a few bottles in it. This was a trash-dumping frenzy.”

Gloria Hernandez, who lives four houses down from the site, was not surprised. She said it’s a spot where people have been illegally discarding refuse for years. “They’ve literally turned it into a dump. I’m sick of it,” Hernandez, 50, said Thursday as she waded through waist-high mounds of garbage.

As much as 200 tons of trash, enough to fill a two-story building, was dumped over the weekend, Prince estimated.

Even on Thursday, two would-be dumpers still drove up to the site. Hector Favela of Sylmar, said he assumed the dump was legal.

“I’ve never dumped here before and I saw all this and figured it was a community dump project,” said Favela, 43.

A spokesman said Metrolink will soon post 33 warning signs and request police patrols along the tracks.