Chester residents, officials want a crackdown on illegal dumping on city streets

CHESTER, Pa. (CBS) – Officials in Chester are looking for new ways to crack down on a problem that's been plaguing the city for years.

People are illegally dumping construction debris, furniture and other trash on public property. No matter how many times crews clean up the trash, it always seems to make its way back to this Delaware County city.

On Monday, the City of Chester Department of Streets & Public Improvements was called out to 11th Street and McDowell Avenue to remove broken windows, a mattress and wooden furniture blocking the sidewalk.

"If we don't keep it up, or we don't get it, it's going to be worse," said Brian Sellers, who works as a driver for the department.

Eric Fitzgerald, who's lived in the area for 40 years, says the debris is more than just an eyesore.

It's hazardous.

"It's bad," Fitzgerald said. "It causes rodents … possums, everything."

The Department of Streets & Public Improvements also cleaned up an illegal dump site at East 16th Street and Washington Avenue.

According to public works, there are seven hotspots where people, often from outside the city, come to chuck their trash, costing the city resources and manpower.

"We could spend several hundred thousand dollars this year at this rate taking this material to be properly disposed of," Chester Public Works Director Andrew Hayman said.

Surveillance cameras were placed at several illegal dumping hotspots, but the city says some of them don't work very well or they don't have good night vision. The city is working to get better cameras to catch violators, who face a stiff penalty.

"At the city level, they can receive a fine of about $1,000 per item and up to 90 days in jail," Hayman said.

So far this year, the city has collected more than 5,500 tons of illegally dumped materials. Officials said that's more trash than garbage collectors have picked up from people's homes.

"They need to do something about that because it's getting worse and worse every summer," Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said he just wants people to stop treating his neighborhood like a landfill.