MIDLAND, Texas — To the casual observer, it is just another collection of trash, one of many around Midland.
It is a huge problem, but buried within this trash is some technology meant to catch illegal dumpers.
“We got a tip on this on this location we were doing an event with keep midland beautiful for earth day to help get the word out about the environmental enforcement unit. One the public at this event gave us tip on this location and it brought us out here to start monitoring this dumpsite”, said Environmental Investigator, Tim Telk.
Monitoring this dump site just became easier with the deployment of hidden surveillance cameras on this site and many others throughout Midland County.
Telk added, “They've gotten us some good pictures, they’ve got a lot of features, they hold a lot of pictures, so it just gives us a really good advantage and we could get more of them as opposed to some of the more expensive higher end ones."
Now that the environmental enforcement unit has the ability to monitor and record illegal dumping, it allows them many option to expose, identify and even prosecute those perpetrators.
“We started a Facebook page for the Midland County Environmental Enforcement, to work in conjunction with our trail cams so that we can post any pictures of dumpers that we have a hard time identifying. We managed to get some photos that we uploaded to Facebook of a dumper, and we will probably be updating Facebook sometime today with the information for the warrant of his arrest”, explained Telk.
So if you haven’t got the message the Environmental Enforcement Unit in Midland County is serious, next time you go out to make an illegal dump...smile... cause you just may be on camera.