Drop-off discouraging dumping

Environmental Services Division prepares to move south-side recycling station to fenced-in site

Crews from the city of Santa Fe’s Environmental Services Division showed up at the recycling dropoff center on Lucia Lane about a month ago to find it completely strewn with trash.

City workers eventually collected 6 tons of garbage that had been dumped overnight, including 15 pallets and eight tires, Environmental Services Supervisor Matt Lujan said Friday.

While that instance was particularly egregious, he added, the recycling center at 4009 Lucia Lane has been a hot spot for illegal dumping for years, a problem that has worsened more recently.

“I don’t ever remember it being this bad,” said Lujan, a 23-year veteran of the Environmental Services Division.

The recycling drop-off center has been at the Lucia Lane location for at least seven years. That will change soon, however, as the division is preparing to move the south-side recycling station a couple of blocks away to a fenced-in site on city-owned property on Jemez Road. The new location is just behind a Walgreens store at the intersection of Jemez and Airport roads.

The city hopes the shift to a gated facility that is locked overnight will cut down on illegal dumping.

Lujan said the new site will resemble the recycling drop-off center adjacent to Fire Station No. 5, near the intersection of Agua Fría Street and Siler Road.

The change comes as both city and state officials have attempted to beautify Santa Fe, and volunteers like the “Trash Pandas” have created their own cleanup initiatives. Trash in city parks and other public areas — including dangerous items such as used needles — has been the source of frequent complaints from city residents.

Measures to encourage people to be more respectful at the Lucia Lane drop-off center have so far been unsuccessful: Lujan said he posted large signs on the chain-link fence warning people not to dump trash and came back one morning to see the signs missing.

Plans to move the recycling station from Lucia Lane, a dirt road connecting Airport Road with Jaguar Drive, have been in the works for “about a year” while the division looked for a new property, he said.

The city recently agreed to let the division use the Jemez Road property for a recycling center and is waiting for a building permit to begin some upgrades, including a second driveway to ensure a dedicated entrance and exit.

A date hasn’t been set for the switch to the new location, but Lujan said it will be ready “hopefully sooner than later,” potentially as early as next month.

The city Public Works Department will grade the site, and employees from the Public Utilities Department put a barrier on a test well on the property. Lujan said as soon as he gets the OK for work to begin, he has signs ready to install and a company lined up to provide the gate.

Illegal dumping creates additional work for the city’s maintenance crews, which clean up the Lucia Lane drop-off site in addition to the rest of their labor-intensive duties.

Crews from the Environmental Services Division visit the recycling center every morning before starting their rounds to collect trash into a pile, which is later picked up by a grapple truck or pickup truck. If a maintenance team can’t come by one morning, Lujan said, he or one of the other supervisors take over the task.

“The whole department works as a team to make sure that it’s clean,” he said. “... Each time we’re here, we’re here anywhere from an hour to two hours, every day.”

Gates at the new site will automatically lock when the drop-off center is closed. Lujan said he expects it to be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. seven days a week.

The division plans to ensure it isn’t open too early in the morning or too late in the evening to limit the impact to residents on Jemez Road, he said: “We’re trying to be courteous.”

The Lucia Lane drop-off site is not adjacent to any homes, but its more remote location also makes it vulnerable to illegal dumping, he said, especially at night when hardly anyone is around.

The Santa Fe Solid Waste Management Agency offers free drop-off days for tires, hazardous waste, electronics and other hardto-dispose of items throughout the year at the Buckman Road Recycling and Transfer Station. Lujan encouraged Santa Feans to take advantage of legal opportunities to dispose of items they don’t want.

“We’re trying to do something for locals and the community,” he said. “We just need them to work with us, too.”

“The whole department make sure that it’s clean . ... Each time we’re here, we’re here anywhere from an hour to two hours, every day.” Environmental Services Supervisor Matt Lujan