As of this summer, Mojave County has bounties for chafers. Signs have now been installed to alert residents to problem areas around the city of Lake Havasu.
The new signs were purchased by the offices of Mojave County Supervisor Ron Gould and Buster Johnson and have been installed in desert areas across Havasu. Forty-nine of these signs were delivered to the Lake Havasu City Department of Public Works this month, and 43 were posted on city roads leading to county areas where the garbage problem persists, Johnson said. The remaining six of his signs will be kept by the city as replacements in case they are needed in the future.
For years there have been residents and visitors who might have thought of the Mojave County desert as their own private landfill. Going forward, these individuals will face more severe penalties under county ordinances, and the county will offer a $500 reward for information leading to the conviction of suspected desert dumpers. are doing.
Earlier this month, the Mojave County Board of Supervisors amended existing ordinances for illegal dumping, approving a $500 bounty and increasing penalties for littering. The ordinance previously imposed a $500 fine for littering on county property, and gave violators the option of cleaning up the area instead of prosecution. Penalties now include a $1,000 fine for the first offense and a $2,500 fine for the second offense. If violators are identified, they are required to remove trash from abandoned public or private property within five days or face additional criminal prosecution.
Johnson said the cost of the new sign was paid for from $4,321 budgeted for Johnson and Gould’s offices this year.
“The cost was reasonable and we had enough budget to make the signs, so we split the cost evenly,” Johnson said Thursday.
The Mojave County Environmental Rural Area Cleanup Enforcement (ERACE) program was established in 2003 to prevent illegal dumping in the county’s desert areas, but the agency has since been tasked with cleaning up those areas. Mr Johnson said there were few arrests in the end. Over the past 20 years, ERACE has recovered about 8 million pounds of trash from the desert, Johnson says.
“If you spend time in the desert enjoying the outdoors, you’ve seen the abuse of our land,” Johnson said. “I’m really disappointed.”
The $500 reward for information leading to a criminal’s conviction was first implemented in 2015. But that effort was overruled by an earlier county law that allowed criminals to clean up trash instead of prosecuting, Gould said. For conscientious county residents, no formal conviction means no reward.
“The idea for the billboard came to me a few months ago,” Gould said Thursday. “We saw that littering near the city limits had a bigger problem than in the countryside. have spent.”
Gould said littering is an ongoing problem outside Havasu’s city limits and in the desert areas of Mojave County. But with the new signs posted, he hopes to see improvements.
“I think people will see these signs and see that we’re offering a bounty to illegal dumpers,” Gould said. “And maybe they will decide to take the garbage to the landfill instead.”
According to Lake Havasu City Police Sergeant Michael Terinoni, law enforcement in Havasu has received nine calls of illegal dumping. According to reports, most of these incidents occur in vacant lots.
