NEW ORLEANS — Illegal dumping across the city continues an issue residents in the Lower 9th Ward have been experiencing for years.
Forstall St. in the Lower 9th Ward, building materials, tires, car parts, and even a boat. Resident Alyssa Hillger has lived here for five years.
“I think it’s become a second version of the city dump,” Hilger said. “We’re talking piles, we’re talking people cleaning out an entire apartment, complete with mattresses and desks sofas, children’s toys and dumping them all.”
When she moved in there was the odd tire or mattress, but in the last six months, she says the dumping has reached an all-time high.
In the last month the City of New Orleans has been clearing away illegally dumped material and tires in the Lower 9th Ward, and while they did take away the tires in this abandoned boat… the city failed to remove the boat itself.
The City says 10 illegal dumping service requests have been submitted in the Lower 9th Ward in the past month.
All the blue dots on this New Orleans Redeployment Authority map are lots currently owned by the city.
“The people who are disrespecting our land and disrespecting our community," Councilman Oliver Thomas said. “All property that the city owns if we can put it back into commerce, put it back into the hands of private citizens who want to upkeep it and develop it…. We have to be proactive, the citizens have to be proactive.”
The councilman says to attract developers we need to curb dumping.
“If a person wants to buy a piece of property that the city is going to dispense of, you want to at least know that somebody is out there fighting against the dumpers and the illegal haulers,” Thomas said.
According to the City, there are 1,500 pending illegal dumping requests across the City, 24 in the Lower Ninth Ward. Three new contractor crews were called in to help with the illegal dumping backlog.
Residents are urged to report illegal dumping to 311.