'Holding people accountable': Houston City Council approves stiffer fines for illegal dumping

On May 26, the Houston City Council approved a measure that will increase fines for the illegal dumping of refuse.

The previous penalty of $2,000 has been doubled and raised to $4,000 – the highest the maximum penalty allowed by state law, according to Click2Houston News.

“It is our way of saying to people, we are holding people accountable, and we want you to pay the price if you are engaged in illegal dumping and you’re found," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner wrote in a May 25 Tweet. "There is an all-out attack on people who are engaged in illegal dumping."

Illegal dumping has become a big problem for the city and Houston police officials have said that in 2020, they investigated 307 illegal dumping cases and filed 226 charges, according to the Houston Chronicle. Officials said it is difficult to identify offenders and that those convicted often faced little punishment to deter them from dumping again.

“Oftentimes, our fines are so low that people consider them a cost of doing business,” District K Council member Martha Castex-Tatum, told the Houston Chronicle. “We are increasing this fine to match the egregiousness of this act.”

City data reveals that complaints about illegal dumping are up 20% overall for the year, with 851 complaints filed in April alone compared to 516 for the same month last year.

“We’re just finding piles of trash,” District B Council member Tarsha Jackson told the Houston Chronicle. “Every time we clean up an area, two days later it’s back piled up.”

Exacerbating the problem, the city's solid waste service only offers service every other month and has been running behind schedule. Turner has previously pledged to earmark money from the city's $304 million federal relief funds to help the department catch up. 

Jackson has proposed that city needs to make it easier for residents to dispose of heavy trash by making increasing accessibility to legal dumpsites. The only city-owned dumpsite in Jackson’s district is only open four days a week and residents need to verify their identity with a government issued ID and a utility bill with a matching address to dump trash.

Besides fines, criminal charges for illegal dumping can vary from a misdemeanor to a felony depending on depending on the volume of trash dumped and the offender's criminal history.

The city's flooding woes of recent years have been purportedly attributed to illegal dumping, according to ABC 13 News.