Out for a walk along the former rail tracks at the bottom of Dilworth Mountain, Brad Pattison made a shocking discovery.
Piles of garbage were clumped along the trail for several feet. Pattison found the illegal dumps while out walking his dog.
The garbage consisted of everything from an old desk, to clothes, to hundreds of cigarette butts.
“The garbage is about 25 feet from the creek and the garbage looks like it’s from a home,” said Pattison.
Blair Stewart, the Urban Forestry supervisor for the City of Kelowna, says bylaw officers are attending the trail area west of Dilworth Drive to clean up the mess.
“There is a lot of transient issues in this area, but this looks to be an actual illegal dump,” said Stewart.
The city is looking to change the access control along the trail so vehicles cannot get through, which will hopefully deter people from dumping in the area.
While Stewart and bylaw work to clean up the garbage, other city workers will may look into the prospect of transient camps in the area.
This isn’t the first time illegal dumps have been reported in the area. The tracks by Dilworth Drive have been a concern for residents in the area for the last year. Other areas of concern where illegal dumping has occured is on forest service roads, which may become more apparent as the snow begins to melt.
Illegal dumping on crown land should be reported to the Regional Waste Reduction Office at 250-469-6250 or online.
