In what would normally be a picturesque valley landscape surrounded by mountains, an area in Salt Lake County became an ugly wasteland of old rubber tires.
The sheer number of tires — a couple of thousand, Salt Lake County health officials estimated — is the result of a concerning illegal dumping problem that has been going on in the area for some time, according to KSL News, which called the latest act "incomprehensible."
Dumped at the site along with the tires were two boats and a refrigerator.
"It's really sad," Hayley Shaffer of the Salt Lake County Health Department told KSL News. "It's heartbreaking that people don't care about the environment."
Sadly, illegal dumping in the United States is quite common, with 1.5 million tons of trash being dumped each year — or about 4,109 tons of trash every day.
According to one study cited by the Environmental Protection Agency, old tires are among the most frequently dumped items, followed by refrigerators and other heavy objects.
Dumped tires, especially in large quantities, are extremely harmful to the environment as well as the plants and animals that call it home. Tires are manufactured with a chemical cocktail of carcinogens, radioactive compounds, and microplastics, so as they break down in whatever environment they are dumped in, those chemicals leach into soil and local waterways.
Dumped trash can also become a breeding ground for mosquitoes and rats. In fact, dumpsites with tires create ideal conditions for mosquito reproduction, with mosquitoes multiplying at a jaw-dropping rate of 100 times faster than normal, according to the EPA. More mosquitoes and rats increases the likelihood that humans will contract severe illnesses, such as dengue fever, hantavirus, and even the plague.
As authorities searched for the perpetrators, a cleanup of the dumping ground was anticipated, but not without a price.
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The last cleanup of the area cost $20,000. However, this time authorities expected it to cost more.
"If the people who dumped here just did their due diligence and cared about the environment, they would take it to the landfill," Shaffer told KSL News.
Frustrations about the illegal dumping are compounded by the fact that a city landfill is just a short walk from the dumping site.
"We have dumps for a reason," one person wrote in the comments of KSL News' coverage.
"There is no excuse for this behavior," another person said.
"I'd be willing to help clean those up," someone else wrote. "So sad that people are so careless about their own environment."
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