Illegal dumping prompts closure of San Gabriel River boat ramp, cameras
A picturesque corner of the San Gabriel River is getting more attention for its trash mounds than its rustic beauty lately.
Officials with the Williamson County Constable’s Office, the United States Army Corps of Engineers and Texas Parks and Wildlife have closed the entrance to the primitive boat ramp off County Road 347, just east of Circleville, to curb illegal dumping in the area.
“We have gotten a lot of complaints about people dumping their trash,” said Paul Leal, constable for Precinct 4, on his Facebook page. “If that’s you, please stop.”
The area, which feeds into the mouth of Granger Lake just to the east, is owned and managed by the USACE, but is leased by TPWD for public hunt lands.
“Williamson County game wardens are working with USACE and the Williamson County constables on a plan to monitor the area and will file on the violators once identified,” wrote TPWD spokeswoman Maggie Berger in a prepared statement. “Due to the extensive amount of illegal dumping that has occurred, USACE has closed public access points until the issue can be reevaluated. The local TPWD biologist is also working with community partners to try to organize cleanup efforts.”
But 29-year resident Clint Barnett, who has been regularly picking up the trash with his wife, said he is not overly optimistic that these measures will be enough to take care of the issue, which often includes mounds of beer bottles, clothing, plastic bags and more—especially when the white bass are running in February and March.
“At one time I have counted 82 cars out there, so at two people per car, which most of the time, there are four or five, that’s 160 people coming and going, so I am estimating that about 300 people in a day are walking through there,” Barnett said in a video interview.
Barnett, who put out a small trash can at the boat ramp, said he has been asking the different agencies to put in a dumpster at the boat ramp and at “The Steps,” another access point down the road—to no avail.
“The county sees it, and the people see it, but nobody will pick it up,” Barnett said. “Not the neighbors, not the county, not the Rangers out there writing tickets…When the fishing season is over, it will sit there until the wind blows it away or somebody picks it up.”
But Leal said the trash cans actually cause more problems than they help.
“The problem is bad for multiple reasons,” Leal said in a video interview. “One reason is we cannot file criminal charges against a person who laid their trash next to a trash receptacle that is full because you would have to believe or assume that that person would have placed the trash inside the can if there had been space. The county attorney’s office, the DA, is not going to take that charge.”
Barnett, who has since removed the receptacle, said the trash being consolidated in those spots and not all over the park was actually a blessing for him being able to clean the area.
In the meantime, however, Leal said his office is working to install game cameras in the area to try to catch the dumpers.
For further updates on this story and the full interviews, check out taylorpress.net.
Suzanne Stevens contributed to this story.
