Did You Know?

Hazards Associated with Illegal Dumping and Illicit Discharges

Updated January 12, 2006

Illegal Dumping:

Health Risks: Rodents, insects, and other vermin attracted to dump sites may pose health risks. Dump sites provide an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes, which can multiply 100 times faster than normal in the warm, stagnant water entrapped in the dump material.

Fire Hazard: The dump material may be subject to spontaneous combustion or arson, which can be causes of a fire hazard. Due to this there can also be forest fires and severe erosion, because fires burn away trees and undergrowth. This can also have a negative impact on plants and wildlife.

Flooding: When the waste dumps block the ravines, creeks, culverts and drainage inlets they can impact the proper drainage of stormwater runoff.

Water Quality Impacts: Runoff from dump sites containing chemicals may contaminate groundwater wells and surface water used as sources of drinking water.

Decrease of Property Value: Dump sites serve as magnets for additional dumping and other criminal activities. The community then becomes unattractive to commercial and residential developers.

Rise in the maintenance costs: There are significant costs to the local government associated with continuous clearing of illegally dumped waste. These costs may be passed along to the residents in the form of higher service fees or property taxes.

Illicit Discharges:

Non-stormwater discharges to storm sewers that come from a variety of sources that include, but are not limited to,: illicit connections and cross connections from industrial, commercial, and sanitary sewage sources, leaking sanitary sewage systems, malfunctioning septic systems, improper disposal of wastes such as used oil, wastewater and litter, spills etc.

These discharges are “illicit” because the City’s storm sewer systems are not designed to accept, process, or discharge such wastes. Storm drainage systems are supposed to receive only the portion of precipitation, which drains from surfaces exposed to precipitation, and nothing else.

Hazards Associated with Illicit Discharges

Pathogenic and toxic pollutant sources from sanitary, commercial and Industrial and other sources from residential areas could cause disease upon contact or consumption. This could also cause treatment problems to downstream receiving waters when contaminated with heavy metals and organic toxicants.

Illicit discharges from landscaped irrigation runoff, construction site dewatering, automobile washing and laundry wastes could cause excessive algal growth and could be a threat to aquatic life.

City Services:

The City of Port Orange has contracted with Onyx Waste Services as the garbage contractor. Onyx Waste Services is a privately owned full service company, serving the public with a variety of environmental services including, but not limited to, innovative recycling programs and solid waste management services.

The details of the services can be obtained from the following brochures:

1. Public Works garbage collection and recycling brochure
2. Garbage collection routes by sub divisions
3. Garbage collection routes for streets not in sub-divisions.

Other Useful resources for finding related information for this region can be found from the following website link:

http://www.volusia.org/environmental/pollution_abatement/default.htm