County officials target highway litter once again

Litterbugs, be warned.

Frustrated by a long-running scourge of debris along U.S. 93 and other roads that lead to the Flathead County landfill, officials once again are taking steps to educate people about the proper way to transport garbage. They also say it's difficult to enforce the litter problem through fines and charges, but that approach remains on the table.

Beginning this spring or summer, motorists who fail to secure their loads should expect to receive warnings from a sheriff's deputy stationed at the landfill, said Dave Prunty, the county's public works director. He's working with Sheriff Brian Heino and the county commissioners to secure overtime funding to fill that post one or two times a month.

"We want to go through the education phase first, and then the enforcement phase," Prunty said.

Sightings of trash along U.S. 93 and Montana 40 near Whitefish have prompted complaints for at least 20 years, Prunty said, adding he continues to see too many trucks piled high with trash and belongings, like the jalopy featured in "The Beverly Hillbillies." And debris on the road can pose a hazard for other vehicles.

Over the years, Prunty said, the county has urged people to avoid littering through billboards, radio spots and even video announcements played at grocery store checkout stands, but messaging alone was not enough. For the past two years, the county has paid a contractor $50,000 annually to pick up litter along the highways.

"That's probably made the most improvement, but it sure as heck isn't solving the problem," Prunty said.

While state law and a county ordinance make littering on highways a misdemeanor punishable by fines in the hundreds of dollars, Heino said it's tricky to cite offending drivers because it's often difficult to prove in court that errant trash came from their vehicles – and because deputies usually are preoccupied with higher-priority calls.

"Listening to our community members, we're hearing we have a problem with that amount of trash that's not getting to the dump," Heino said. But with 63 deputies covering 5,200 square miles, rapid population growth and surging call volumes, he said, "we're one of the busiest counties per deputy in the state of Montana."

Prunty said workers at the landfill have had occasional success notifying drivers who leave trash on the highway and encouraging them to pick it up. But when those drivers refuse, there's little the workers can do.

"We do not have the ability to write a ticket. The landfill can't do that," Prunty said. "We don't have any enforcement capabilities in any way, shape or form."

A bill sponsored by state Rep. Dave Fern, D-Whitefish, might have made it easier for police to issue tickets by requiring that all loads of refuse "be covered and secured to prevent any of the load from dropping, shifting or otherwise escaping from the vehicle." The legislation, however, was tabled after a hearing before the House Transportation Committee last month.

"If you're hauling debris and garbage, you need to pack it appropriately, you need to tie it down and you need to cover it. Simple as that," Fern told his colleagues on the committee. Without such a requirement, he said, "the statute is really lacking teeth, and lacking the ability for law enforcement to enforce and prevent problems."

Heino said Fern's bill would have enabled deputies to take a more "proactive" approach by pulling over drivers with unsecured loads, instead of waiting for trash to fall onto the roadway and following up on complaints and witness accounts afterward.

Another bill sponsored by Rep. Fred Anderson, R-Great Falls, has made it to the Senate Highways and Transportation Committee. It would create a special state fund that could receive donations from civic groups to pay for anti-littering signage along Montana's highways.

"The intent is to provide reminders to motorists, and hopefully help create a culture of keeping our state litter-free and the 'Last Best Place' beautiful," Anderson told the committee last month.

Anderson said his earlier proposal for the state to cover the cost of signage failed during the 2019 legislative session because the $400,000 price tag was a "deal-breaker."

Reporter Chad Sokol can be reached at 758-4434 or csokol@dailyinterlake.com