Rickey George has made a career in law enforcement for the betterment of the people. In his 28 years of service he has served as supervisor over homicide sexual assault, the tactical gang unit, property crimes, persons crimes, field training officer, investigator for the county attorneys office and communications. He currently serves as Director of Ector County Environmental Enforcement and The Emergency Management Coordinator for all of Ector County including the City of Odessa and Goldsmith.
Ector County Environmental Enforcement Unit was established as an independent department in 2015. They operate short staffed and on a limited annual budget. Their objective is to improve the quality of life for the citizens of Ector County by aggressively enforcing state environmental laws through a collaborative effort of law enforcement, regulatory, and community agencies.
With illegal dumping on the rise George says there aren’t enough hours in the day. He characterized what he has seen in Ector County as epidemic proportions of illegal dumping. Public nuisance properties and illegal dumping sites become habitats for mice, rats, rattlesnakes and also breeding grounds for mosquitos. The lack of enforcement has led to current conditions and George and his crew are changing this by cracking down in a big way on those responsible for illegal dumping and they are getting a lot of help from the public through social media. Ector County has an estimated 2000 plus dump sites consisting of everything from mattresses, furniture, household trash to tires and junk cars. Millions of tires are dumped yearly creating unsightly messes and with no local disposal options this costs taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. George is urgently looking for a cost effective solution to this issue. After meeting with our local Justices of the Peace, they assured me that they would be expediting enforcement and penalties within their department to do their part in curbing illegal dumping.
The Ector county Environmental enforcement Unit averages 800-1000 cases per year. They use cameras and evidence left behind coupled with community involvement to catch the bad guys. 22,000 tons of solid waste and litter have been remediated and paid for by violators. This has saved Ector County tax payers an estimated 1.7 million in disposal fees alone. This does not include labor and fuel costs. “Our goal is to get them to clean up their mess, not put them in jail,” George said. George has recently began organizing probationer clean-ups around Ector County. This saves tax payers money and gives probationers a place to serve their community service hours.
George has brokered deals on behalf of the county resulting in disposal companies donating roll off dumpsters to the county and secured a grapple truck through the commissioners court that will make cleaning up dump sites a much quicker process. He will also be working with commissioners to organize community clean ups and bulk item drop offs in the near future.
Illegal dumping is unsightly, unhealthy, causes contamination to our water source and unfair to those who keep clean and manicured properties. It is up to our elected officials to give this department the resources they need to clean up this mess and take our county back. LET US BE REAL, 3 officers enforcing these laws is seriously deficient for the job at hand. They would have to work 250 sites/cases per month for a full year just to clean up the messes we currently have in Ector County and that is if no more illegal dumping occurred. This is a sinking ship and needs to be properly funded to get a handle on things. Enforcement Officers must be experienced officers who are qualified to write and enforce warrants. The starting pay for an enforcement officer is currently $10,000 less per year than inexperienced deputies start at for Ector County Sheriff’s Department. This gap in pay exacerbates an already bad situation and makes it almost impossible for Enforcement to properly staff their unit. In order to hire the officers needed to clean up Ector County the pay scale must be equivalent to starting pay for deputies. Once Environmental has the county cleaned up and solutions to the dumping in place then the unit could be downsized again. George’s long term goal is to educate all peace officers working in Odessa and Ector County on environmental laws enabling them to handle situations they may encounter daily. They currently offer free introductory training to any law enforcement agency to get them started enforcing basic laws.
Unless you want to be plastered all over social media, ridiculed by your neighbors and taken to jail I recommend properly disposing of trash and bulky items. Follow the link below and you will see just how serious the problem of illegal dumping is to the citizens of this county. If you see trucks cruising around with a load of trash or tires do not approach them but take down their license plate number and call and report it to Environmental at 432-498-4013. They will follow up to ensure that the trash was properly disposed of. To curb illegal dumping it will take vigilance from everyone. Environmental officers are overwhelmed and cannot be everywhere at once but if thousands of citizens are watching we can make a difference. Pay attention, get involved and help us clean up our county.
The only permitted landfill in Ector County is Charter Waste, located at 12035 W Murphy St. in West Odessa and can be reached at 432-381-6726 for rate information. We do have another permitted landfill currently in the permitting process that should be opening to the public soon. It is Diamond Back, located North of I-20 on 866.
I am all out of time but follow me here next week for part 2 with Rickey George, Ector County’s man of many hats.
https://www.facebook.com/EctorCountyPTI