Aransas Pass Cracking Down on Illegal Dumping

There is an old adage "out of sight, out of mind," and that is what many people are thinking when it comes to illegal dumping. Old tires, couches, and trash of all sorts can be seen spread throughout the back roads of Aransas Pass.

"We are still having a huge issue with illegal dumping in our city. We are still finding areas, new areas that new dumping is being done at. We are still trying to fight this illegal dumping issue. We are still finding a lot of items that are leading to properties that are not even in our city that these illegal dumped items are coming from," said Aransas Pass Code Enforcement Compliance Officer Cory Elrod.

Aransas Pass Code Enforcement Compliance Officer Cory Elrod says they have always had problems with illegal dumping. Whether you throw it out the window of your car, or you deposit your waste knowingly on someone’s property, it is a violation of the law.

"You can pay a fine, go to jail, there is different levels of punishment; it is up to the District Court on what process they want to go with," said Elrod.

The city does fine violators that they’re able to catch for illegal dumping. Depending on the amount of trash and disposal costs, that fine can range between $500 and $2,000, and even higher.

"Sometimes we find individuals' names on mail, old prescription bottles that will read that we will research through our system that will trace down where those people live at. Code Enforcement will then go to the property and make contact with those individuals and investigate how the items end up illegally dumped in other parts of town. Nine times out ten, these individuals have hired contractors, handymen not from our area that they pay for services and to clean up the property. They haul it off, and unfortunately, they go and dump it in other parts of our town. They dump it on the flats so we still do a lot of investigations that way as well. Sometimes we get lucky, sometimes we don't," said Elrod.

Illegal dumping hurts our community by creating unhealthy spaces, polluting our environment, and discouraging our residents. When people dump their trash illegally, everyone pays. The city of Aransas Pass is also cracking down on owners of unkempt properties that are posing health and safety hazards.

"This is a constant issue that we are having. The majority of our residences, they do what they can. We have a lot of property owners that don't reside in Aransas Pass full-time that are repeat offenders, and it is these properties that I am discussing with you right now that constantly are always an issue. We usually have to send city services out there to clean up the property, " said Elrod.

Elrod said Code Enforcement will be looking for disheveled properties while on patrol and to ticket homeowners who are violating city ordinances regarding rubbish and nuisances. They’ll then follow up to ensure the violations are corrected.

"Typically, we will give them a 10-day notice to get it cleaned up. If they fail to do that within the 10 days or do not make arrangement for an extension then we start a citation that will end up in municipal court and each violation can be cited daily for noncompliance. So we can go to the property every day after the time frame has ran out, and there is no improvement, or they have not made arrangement with our department, we can start citing them daily, which those fines go up to $500 a day for each violation," said Elrod.


Aransas Pass does offer drop-off locations for residents to bring trash and brush. You only need proof of residency to use the city’s sanitation services.

"The grace period we gave with Hurricane Harvey has ended. Harvey hit 3 years ago so the city is cracking down a little bit harder on getting properties getting cleaned up, but we are trying to help the residents as well. We do a lot of city-wide cleanups throughout the year. If you want to take it to the dump, stop by city hall and get a voucher. You get those free once a month, every month, and that is a free pass to the dump for our residences," said Elrod.

If you witness illegal dumping or unkempt properties, you are encouraged to call the Aransas Pass Police Department at (361) 758-5224.