Illegal Dump Sites Mount in Collin County

As Collin County continues to grow, more illegal dumping sites are being discovered.

It is a side to Collin County you don't often see and a crime Chuck Sibley works to combat every day.

“This is one of them that just boggles your mind,” he said, staring at an illegal dumping site near Princeton.

The site, he says, is one of the worst for illegal dumping in the county.

Sibley is the environmental investigator at the Collin County Sheriff's Office.

"As the population grows in Collin County, more people are coming, living in the county and they're discovering people have been doing stuff like this for years,” he explained.

The eyesore is near Princeton is the remnants of an illegal fence business.

But because the three-year statute of limitations expired to catch those responsible, county taxpayers will ultimately foot the bill to clean it up.

"I bet it'd take 100-grand to clean this place up,” Sibley said.

Down the highway, Sibley says another illegal dumping site is growing.

“It's kind of like amoebas. One pile turns into two turns into three,” he said.

Tuesday, he installed a surveillance camera overlooking the site to hopefully catch illegal dumpers red-handed.

Some aren’t tough to track down at all.

Sibley says a cell phone stuck inside a sofa at another illegal dump site led back to the man who left it.

Punishment for illegal dumping ranges from a fine up to prison time.

Sibley says he's conducted about 360 illegal dumping investigations this year.

In the past two years, he says he's filed about 13 felony cases for illegal dumping, a number certain to increase as the county continues to grow.