A Positive Sign

In early September, I was on my usual run with Golda, my dog, to Dead Horse Canyon, a serene little park in South Seattle. It has a creek running through it and two wooden bridges; it is a haven for native plants, wildlife, dog walkers and local residents. With that description you can imagine my fury when I approached the entrance and saw a huge pile of construction debris dumped in the parking lot. This was not the first pile of garbage I had seen at this spot but the magnitude of this dumping got my attention. As I approached, Del Davis, a forest steward, was setting out to consolidate the pile. I encouraged him to look for incriminating evidence in the pile. He later reported that he found four ski passes with a name on it. Our first clue.

My fury still fresh, I grabbed my camera and returned to the pile to take pictures. I returned home and immediately made a cardboard sign to post at the site after the garbage had been removed by the city. Most of the initial words came right away “DUMP YOUR SHIT HERE AND YOUR KARMA WILL DUMP ON YOU”, I consulted with former neighbor, Maurine Malone, by phone to hone the message. She wisely advised me to substitute the word shit with crap and so I did, but I really wanted to write SHIT, YOUR SHIT. Illegal dumping is right up there with animal abuse for me. What kind of mind governs the person who does illegal dumping? Do they have no regard for others or the environment? Do they not think there is a consequence to their actions? Del Davis, the forest steward, thinks that people who do illegal dumping do not know what the word karma means. Whether they know what the word means or not, I believe it is a major violation of the Tao, the reality of interaction: nature and human interaction. Harmonize with nature or pay the consequences. I wanted the person responsible for this dumping to pay.

Nine days later, I did a little detective work and found the e-mail address of the person named on the ski passes. Given his profession at a public university, I assumed he hired a contractor for remodeling and that the contractor did the dumping so I wrote him an e-mail inquiry about whether he might be able to assist in identifying who was responsible for the dumping. In the e-mail, I included a close-up photo of the pile. He wrote back immediately signaling his desire to help with the investigation and a request to involve the parks authorities. He also forwarded my e-mail to Larry Crites, the owner of the house he formerly resided in. Larry Crites was able to identify the construction debris in the photo and contacted the contractor who was responsible for hauling it. In just a matter of hours, Mr. Crites made the bold move of confronting the contractor and getting a confession out of him. Mr. Crites e-mailed me the name and phone number of the responsible party. I forwarded that information to Larry Campbell, a ranger with the Seattle Parks Department. He is now in the process of fining him $500.00. Colleen Hackett, a supervisor for the Parks Department, put in a work order and got a DON'T DUMP ON SEATTLE sign installed in record breaking time at the parking lot at Dead Horse Canyon. My little cardboard sign had been tie wrapped to the official city sign post. I felt honored.

It was a positive sign to me that citizens collaborated and made a difference. The culprit could have gotten away so easily and probably had in the past since he is a contractor that works in other parts of the city but his residence is in South Seattle. The integrity, concerns and actions of four citzens led to our man; the parks department was right in step, penalizing the offender and creating signage to prevent future dumping. Not one of us could have gotten to the bottom of this alone. We were in harmony with the Tao; each other and nature.

Our work is not done, however. All unoccupied land is vulnerable as dumping sites so citizens need to be vigilant and protective of them. I believe it is the perception that no one is watching nor cares which gives dumpers the sense that no one is affected by their actions. My proposal is to establish a collaboration with the Parks Department and an arts organization to fund local artists to make signs which give the opposite message. We are watching. We care. And so should you.