Central residents fed up with illegal dumping

A big spring cleanup is scheduled for next weekend at sites of illegal dumping in Grand Falls-Windsor.

There are four separate trash heaps along an eight kilometre stretch of road on the opposite side of the Exploits River — just outside the town limits.

Hunting guide Dion Fudge says there's always lots of trash in the woods just outside the town.

"More and more all the time," Fudge said. "It's like people coming here at night, hit and miss like that, just dumping it and [they] get away from it."

Dave Barker got tired of looking at the rusting heaps of metal and decided it was time to do something about it.

Barker has organized a cleanup effort for next weekend, recruiting youth groups and a donated dump truck to get rid of the mess.

"Here in Newfoundland and Labrador, we talk about a pristine wilderness, but it ain't pristine when you come into the woods," Barker said.

"Both governments, provincial and municipal governments, got to come out and say we want stronger regulations," he said.

"That's what we got to do, and the only way we got to do it is we need to do it together. People got to work together with this."

This will be Barker's fifth year trying to clean up the sites and put an end to illegal dumping.

The town said it currently has more security cameras on order, but has not disclosed how many or where they will be located, in order to increase their chances of catching and prosecuting the culprits.