CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Corpus Christi resident Mario Martinez walks his dog along Ennis Joslin Road, near the Oso Bay, and has recently noticed an increase in the amount of trash along the marshes.
“I bring my dog to run out here, they chase birds, and they play in water and stuff like that, and I am always picking up glass and some garbage," Martinez said. "But when I found this, this is way too much for me to pick up, there is there piles like this.”
Martinez reached out to the city for a response and the city of Corpus Christi Solid Waste came out to clean it up on Tuesday.
Corpus Christi Assistant Director of Solid Waste Philip Aldridge said his team was able to get out there to Oso Bay and fill up nearly three trailers with trash.
Adridge said prosecuting the person who caused this can often times be hard.
“Illegal dumping is really hard to prosecute, so what you can do if you do find some contact information you can go to that person," Aldrige said. "But does it mean that it was that person that dumped it there or maybe they paid someone to clean up a property and someone they paid dumped it there.”
Aldridge highlighted the importance of keeping these areas safe since a lot of them are sensitive habitats.
“We just try to educate them, it really falls onto the property owners to prevent illegal dumping so that is what we really try to work with proactively when we find stuff like that is how did they gain access to the area,” Aldridge said.
Martinez said residents should encourage each other to keep our natural areas clean.
“You should know better than this,go to the dump like everybody else does,” Martinez said.
Aldrige says if you need to get rid of waste, there is the J.C. Elliot Collection Center on 7001 Ayers St. open Monday through Friday from 8 to 5 p.m.
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