ILLEGAL DUMPING FUELS CAMPAIGN TO CITE OFFENDERS.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer

For years, Bob and Jackie Mortensen watched trash pile up near their home in the hills south of Palmdale, left by neighbors and others to avoid driving to the dump and paying dump fees.

The couple for years has picked up the trash and hauled it themselves to the dump, now they are fed up and fighting back.

``I'm angry,'' said 60-year-old Jackie Mortensen. ``This is where I live. I have to drive by this every day.''

Across the Antelope Valley, the Mortensens and like-minded residents have teamed up with city, county and sheriff's officials in hopes of ridding the landscape of trash eyesores.

``A lot of people don't like the look of the desert,'' said Jackie Livingstone, who has become actively involved in cleaning up dump sites in Lake Los Angeles. ``So they think that their trash isn't going to make it look any worse. But we have to live here and we don't want to live amongst their trash.''

County officials say the illegal dumping costs thousands of dollars in cleanup and usually leaves the communities paying the price.

``It's everywhere,'' said Sherry Lasagna, a field deputy for Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who has helped organize an Antelope Valley Illegal Dumping Subcommittee. ``You can drive down any dirt road and see illegal dumping.''

``Over the years, it's just mushroomed,'' said Livingstone, a part-time instructional assistant at Wilsona Elementary School. ``People don't care where the trash goes as long as it's off their property.

``Once an area starts building up trash, it just booms,'' she said. ``Everyone thinks just because their neighbor is doing it, they can do it to.''

The subcommittee was established in April with representatives from the cities of Palmdale and Lancaster, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the Department of Public Works, the District Attorney's Office, the Health Department, the Sheriff's Department and private trash collectors.

Task force members have arranged for cleanups of some dump sites, cited property owners, posted more ``no dumping'' signs and conducted surveillance operations hoping to catch dumpers in the act.

Palmdale's volunteer public-safety patrol unit, Volunteers Organized to Improve Community Environment, have been adding dump sites to their regular patrol routes.

The volunteers have caught dumpers in the act, resulted in several arrests.

Without an eyewitness, it's difficult to prosecute dumpers, said Deputy Steve Harbeson, who is part of the Lancaster station's County Crime Task Force.

``We need to have a witness. Otherwise, there's no way for us to indicate where it came from,'' he said.

Harbeson and his partner, Deputy Fred Hill, said they have figured out another tactic to deter desert dumpers.

``Any time we catch someone in the act, we're going to impound the suspect's car as being used in a crime,'' Harbeson said. ``If we can make it cost-effective for them to go to the dump, maybe it will work as a deterrent.''

Sheriff's officials also hope to amend state laws to make all illegal dumping a felony and increase the possible fine. Currently, illegal dumping is a misdemeanor unless damages are in excess of $5,000 or the material is considered hazardous waste.

Since April, the Los Angeles Department of Health Services had cited about 30 property owners, giving them deadlines to clean up their property or face penalties.

``We've had good compliance,'' said John Porter, chief environmental health specialist with the Department of health Services. ``So far, we haven't had to turn any cases over to the DA.''

The Department of Public Works says that they have placed seven new no-dumping signs throughout the Antelope Valley and have plans for 11 more to go up before the end of the month.

Officials also hope to publicize a $500 reward available to anyone witnessing an illegal dumping crime who gives testimony in court that results in a conviction.

Lake Los Angeles and the valley's sparsely populated east side seem to be hit the hardest with illegal dumping.

``Dumping is usually done in a close proximity to housing,'' said Harbeson. ``People are just looking for easy access.''

According to Harbeson, the dumping usually is done by residents and gardeners. The items most usually found are grass trimmings, tree limbs, residential trash, tires and motor oil.

``People don't know they can take motor oil to any gas station for a nominal fee,'' Harbeson said. ``They don't think they have alternatives other than the dump.''

South of Palmdale, the Mortensens say the type of trash deposited by illegal dumpers is changing. Once it was mostly small items, which they put in their trash bins and then hauled to the dump.

But now they say items are getting larger: furniture, household appliances and appliance parts, objects too big for them to move.

``It doesn't make any sense,'' Jackie Mortensen said. ``We're paying to get rid of other people's trash.

``I don't live in the city dump,'' she said. ``But sometimes I feel like that.''

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos

Photo: (1--color) Kay Hendrickson frets over a pile of illegally dumped trash near 45th Street West and L-14.

(2) Jackie Livingstone is fed up with cleaning up the garbage others have strewn about near her house.

(3) Discarded beer cans get disposed of by Kay Hendrickson. Local residents tired of the blight are organizing to fight illegal dumping.

(4) Unwanted furniture lies abandoned in the desert near housing.

Jeff Goldwater/Daily News