Fresno County cracks down on illegal dumping

Illegal dumping has become a widespread problem across Fresno County.

Old appliances, worn out mattresses, even household trash have all been dumped here illegally along Clinton Ave in a Fresno County pocket just outside of city limits was finally getting cleaned up and hauled away Monday morning after neighbors complained for months.

Tony White Fresno County "It's like feeding a stray cat, you keep feeding it it's going to keep coming back. Well, we keep picking it up like this, of course, it's a nuisance, no one wants trash in front of their house so we keep picking it up."

Tony White was part of the Fresno County crew tasked with cleaning up this eyesore according to him the county spends thousands of dollars picking up tons of trash like this from illegal dumping sites every day -- thousands of man hours that could be used elsewhere

"We have over 630 miles of road that we cover just in our area and anybody who drives these county roads know the condition and we're having a hard time keeping up with the potholes when we have to use half of our crews for trash," White said.

For nearby residents like Jim Strein, seeing the clean-up crew was a long time coming but was thankful that the county was taking care of the mess.

Fresno County resident, Jim Strein said, "It was really getting bad when it was starting to smell... When the sun would come out and people throwing their household trash out there, we could smell it here in the park."

This site has become so popular for illegal dumping, one man, with our camera rolling and in front of county workers, pulled over and appeared set on dumping a truckload of junk before thinking otherwise.