Illegal dumping in Williamson County: Officials urge those responsible to clean up mess

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas - The Williamson County Precinct 4 Constable is calling on people to stop illegal dumping. He's taken to social media to demand those responsible to call his office and clean up their mess.

He says if you work with them, they'll lower the penalty. If you don't, people have gone to jail for this.

A Facebook video shows Constable Paul Leal at a dump site in the Granger area.

"If that couch looks familiar to you, or this one, the old white swing, the table, you know about these RC trucks, call us, we want to talk to you," he said in the video.

Leal says illegal dumping is a huge problem.

"We're tired of it, the people that make up Williamson County Precinct 4 are tired of it, and we're going to hold you accountable," he said.

When deputies come across a dump site, they weigh the items on a portable scale. The site in the Facebook video had about 500 pounds of items.

The penalty depends on the weight and size.

Leal says he suspects someone was hired to take the items to the landfill, but they dumped it instead. Commercial dumping has a harsher penalty.

"Vet who you hire," he said. "If somebody pulls up and says, 'hey I can take all this off your hands for $200, they're not going to take it to the landfill, they're going to dump it in a ditch."

Leal says if your items are at the dump site, call them, take it to a landfill, give them a receipt, and they'll bring down the punishment to a Class C misdemeanor, the same level as a speeding ticket.

"We will work with you if you will work with us," he said. "We're not taxing the taxpayers, we're not having to pick it up, county employees aren't picking it up, [Texas Department of Transportation]'s not picking it up, it's not costing us any more money, other than what we're paying my guys to come out here and investigate it."

He says the social media videos get people's attention.

"We've had mothers call, "that's my son's truck" and we're like, 'tell junior to call us, and we'll work with him,' so they work, they're effective," he said.

Later this week, they plan to release another video about a dump site just a few yards away.

Leal says last year, they got 832 environmental calls for service. This is year so far, they've gotten 32. Environmental calls deal with land, water, or air.