Sandoval County officials announced the launch of an expanded Preserve Sandoval program earlier this week. It’s an offshoot of a pilot program launched in 2022, which was created to address illegal dumping off of county roads around Rio Rancho. This expanded program, covers all of Sandoval County.
The formula is simple: The public identifies illegal dumping near public roads and then individuals or non-profit organizations can register with the county as vendors and get paid to haul away the trash for a set fee. The county funds the program through revenues generated by landfill fees. No taxpayer dollars are used in this endeavor.
Bernalillo Mayor Jack Torres is all for the program. “I haven’t seen all the details yet, but we welcome any help we can get,” he said. “Our officers try to catch folks when they seem them dumping, but they can’t be everywhere all the time.”
Torres said Bernalillo has several vacant areas in the southern and western sides of town that people often dump household appliances or unwanted trash and furniture. “Those areas aren’t residential, and they’re pretty dark. I guess people see it as an opportunity to leave stuff they no longer want.”
In making the announcement, Wayne Johnson, County Manager, said, “These illegal dumping sites pose a safety issue to our residents and they diminish the beauty of our landscape and neighborhoods. Preserve Sandoval demonstrates the commitment between the public and the county for a safer, more aesthetically pleasing environment by working together to remediate this blight. It also provides a revenue source to individual and non-profit contractors. It’s a win-win endeavor.”
The program has three parts:
Residents identify locations fitting the program’s criteria and enter them on the Preserve Sandoval portal. Next, Code Enforcement Officers verify these locations’ eligibility. If qualified, then these locations are posted on the web and are ready to be assigned to a clean-up vendor.
Individuals and non-profit organizations can register online to become county vendors so that they can perform the clean-up. Following receipt of the application, the county will notify registrants if they are approved as vendors.
Approved vendors will be able to identify sites that they would like to clean up, and whenever possible, these sites will be assigned to them. They then take the collected trash to the Sandoval County Landfill and are paid $100.00 for every cubic yard of hauled trash.
To register to be a vendor, visit sandovalcountynm.gov/preservesandoval. If you see illegal dumping, please contact your local non emergency police number.