nhardin@salisburypost.com

ALBEMARLE — The Uwharrie Regional Resources Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to ask lawmakers to consider legislation that would require law enforcement to enforce littering laws and force counties to provide and pay for trash sites.
The proposal would target litter bugs who flood the Yadkin River waterways with debris, said Larry Jones, former president of the High Rock Lake Association.
Jones’ proposal started as a five-item recommendation and was later prepared by Wake Forest University professor Dennis Lemly.
Some of the items involved instituting fines for violating clean water regulations and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System requirements.
Another proposal urged legislators to create a bill requiring counties to pay for landfills, solid waste, trash or debris collection out of the general tax revenue.
Jones said the public is discouraged from appropriately disposing of trash when a fee is incurred.
That trash, he said, ends up in our lakes.
“When trash and garbage disposal is handled on a fee basis, tipping fees, whatever, it encourages illegal dumping. It encourages illegal trash disposal,” Jones said.
But Jones acknowledged the difficulties in asking public officers to take on my services.
“Trash is made by everybody. It’s a public problem,” he said. “If paid for out of general tax revenues rather than a fee structure — and I know it’s tougher for commissioners and city councils for this sort of thing to raise tax rather than levy a fee — we believe it would go a long, long way to encourage people to do the right thing to dispose of their trash at the right place.”
Still, the commission agreed with Jones, voting unanimously to propose the measure to local North Carolina General Assembly delegates.
“I personally don’t see any problem with any of those in terms of what this commission might do and recommend,” Commission Chairman Max Walser said Wednesday.
Jones also said the law needs to require law enforcement officers to investigate or arrest littering laws.
“The problem that we have experienced throughout the region is law enforcement agencies do not consider chasing down litterers — litter bugs — for a maximum 100 dollar fine to be a very good use of their time,” Jones said.
“I’ve called the sheriff’s department to come out to my farm to check a pick-up load of trash left on the farm. They don’t want to bother with it,” he said. “It’s not very pleasant to go through a load of garbage trying to find a name anyway and it’s a $100 fine.”