ODESSA, Texas — Ector County sees a significant amount of illegal dumping every year.
"Ector County is the worst county in the state of Texas for illegally dumped tires," said Rickey George, Director Ector County Environmental Enforcement Unit
That's where the Ector County Environmental Enforcement Unit comes in, to try and get numbers like that down.
"We are constantly, proactively looking for illegal dumping," George said.
The environmental enforcement unit uses a few tactics to find people who dump these items. Citizens of Ector County can call in a tip, but the unit also patrols areas that have a history of dumping and they even catch perpetrators on camera.
"We have hundreds of cameras all over Ector County that monitor most of these areas, so we have several different strategies to combat it," said George.
Those who get caught can face jail time.
"Anything over five pounds you start to go to jail for, so anything from 5 pounds to 500 pounds would be classified as a class b misdemeanor which could be up to 6 months in jail." Said George
Most people illegally dump items because they don't want to pay the cost to take it to a landfill, so the enforcement unit hosts free drop offs to try and help offset some of the dumping.
"Every now and then we try and host a bulky item drop off just so they can drop off some of those old couches for free." said George.
Less illegal dumping, and less trash, only helps Odessa and Ector County grow and become a better place.
"Some parts of our county do look pretty bad, one of our goals is to clean up the county, make it look respectable and improve our reputation of certain areas so we can have economic growth," said George.