LAWBREAKER TRASHES STREET.

Byline: Josh Kleinbaum Staff Writer

PACOIMA - The mountain of trash appeared suddenly one Saturday morning: dozens of trash bags, discarded insulation, chunks of dry wall and planks of wood with screws and nails protruding.

Residents of Debell Street waited several days for someone to come and clean up the heap, located less than 100 yards from Canterbury Avenue Elementary School. Finally, on Wednesday, they called the city's 311 hotline. By Thursday afternoon, it was gone.

That quick response is the result of a crackdown by the city, which offers $1,000 rewards for residents who report information leading to an arrest for illegal dumping, officials say.

``The bottom line is, we've got hard-working people in our district, and we shouldn't have to put up with this,'' City Councilman Tony Cardenas said. ``The city needs to put more resources into it. We're trying to figure out a way to get creative and get more resources there.''

The Bureau of Street Services has a team of 20 inspectors, all authorized to make arrests, working on illegal dumping.

They've made 294 arrests, issued 3,275 warnings and conducted 1,635 administrative hearings for illegal dumping since January 2003, Chief Street Services Investigator Gary Harris said. Before 2003, Harris remembers his team making just two arrests a year.

And officials have twice utilized a 2003 ordinance that allows the city to seize cars owned by people found to be dumping trash illegally.

``The key was surveillance,'' Harris said. ``Before, we were being reactive instead of proactive. The dump would happen. We would go to the location and see what we could find. Now we try to catch people in the act.''

The surveillance has been limited to areas with some history of dumping problems, Harris said. His team members rotate surveillance based on input from the community, but they struggle to cover the entire city.

``It's been a big program for us, and it's something we'd like to expand,'' Harris said. ``We'd like to do it in more places, but our limitation is our resources.''

That doesn't ease the concern of residents of Debell Street, who lived with the trash pile for nearly a week.

The spot, next to an empty field, had previously been a popular place for people to dump stolen cars, neighbors said, but not to dump trash.

``Out of nowhere, I just saw it there,'' said Jeffrey Bonavides, 17, who lives down the street from the trash pile. ``It (made) the block look dirty.''

Cardenas said part of the problem is that many residents don't know to call 311 to report illegal dumping. His office conducted a campaign about two months ago to educate people to call 311 if they see illegal dumping or need bulky items picked up for free.

``We're attacking the problem,'' Cardenas said. ``We're not satisfied that we are where we need to be and where we can be, but we're getting there.''

Josh Kleinbaum, [phone]

josh.kleinbaum(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Illegally dumped trash makes an unsightly mess on Debell Street in Pacoima. Residents called 311 and got it removed.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer