by Steven Ray McDonald
In the summer of 2021, it became apparent to me we had a trash and dumping problem in Vail and Rita Ranch. Disgusting trash was everywhere, sofas, discarded Jacuzzis, beds, and furniture. I saw a couch dumped on Mary Ann Cleveland. Why isn’t ADOT cleaning up the trash along the interstate? It literally looks like I-10 between Tangerine and Colossal Cave is the sanitary landfill. What do people driving by think of our community? I began to post this on social media. My 1st post had 93 people comments. Mostly supportive. Someone called me “a Karen”. People were questioning me “What are you doing about the problem”. They were right!
So as a retiree I thought, “Why not investigate this problem a little more?” I began calling local Government, wrote letters, and I complained. I called local Adopt-A-Highway programs and asked them why they had not picked up. One clean-up program told me they deemed it was too dangerous for them, they had safety concerns, so they decided to discontinue the program. They further stated if people can’t do it without fear of getting killed, they won’t (I later found out this was a little dramatic). I learned pre pandemic, they allow prison inmates to help ADOT clean-up the highways in Arizona but had cut that program.
My best and most productive call was to ADOT Highway Maintenance lead. They are a very well-run Arizona Highway Department. I learned ADOT Highway Maintenance was woefully undermanned. ADOT now sends two people out to clean up a 2-mile section of highway, when they are not fixing other things. As the number of people and drivers increase, their resources decrease, and things kept getting worse.
I spent 3 months trying to get someone to pick up items dumped on the old abandon section of old Benson Highway next to I-10. Nobody could figure out whose responsibility it was. Finally, success, we got someone from Government to do pick-up. I was really close to hiring a guy to pick it up and do a dump run out of my pocket.
I learned about ADOT Adopt-A-Highway and after getting approval from my church, and doing the paperwork, I even push back. Church members began to question safety before we even did the pick-up. When I received the ADOT safety briefing to give to our church members, it was clear that ADOT Adopt-A-Highway was doing everything they could to mitigate safety issues and make it safe. People that do the pick-up accept the risk. ADOT does this every day. I researched to see if there we any mishaps in the Adopt-A-Highway program and didn’t find one, not even a safety incident. If fact, in Arizona, has more than 10,000 people help address this trash problem by participating in the ADOT Adopt a Highway volunteer programs. Today over 1,100 volunteer groups are cleaning almost 2,000 miles of landscape along state highways. But this isn’t enough, after presenting the info, we decided to move forward.
In February of 2022, we finally did it. During our 1st Adopt-A-Highway Program event we picked up 92 bags of trash on our 2-mile section of I-10 in February and are again doing it very soon. Even with 32 volunteers we did not finish. It was still a huge success. We hope to get finished with our section of road on the next pick-up. It is just 2 miles of one direction of westbound I-10 but we think it will do much to give people a better 1st impression of Vail, gateway to Sahuaro National Park and Colossal Cave Mountain Park.
It became apparent to me during this whole journey that the root cause of this issue was ADOT’s lack of resources. The other part is people not caring about litter and dumping. We have heard the Police are now beginning to issue more $500 fines lately. Look I am no tree hugger, in fact, being a right winger; I am not your normal spear header for this kind of problem. But I thought it was important. Groups may receive a 2-year permit to cleanup roadside litter. I challenge, local groups, organizations, businesses and churches to adopt a 2-mile section of road. You will be required twice a year to pick it up. Adopt a highway works if your group stays on it. My church thought it was a great idea to do our part, now it shows, we are making a difference.
