Stacks of discarded rubber tires, weather-beaten mattresses and bags, boxes and cartons line the streets of Greater Cleveland.

Elected officials and city residents say they’re fed up with watching the once- vibrant neighborhoods that surround University Circle become cluttered with trash, as abandoned homes and boarded up businesses become dumping grounds for garbage and debris.

Illegal dumping plagues many of America’s major cities, primarily impoverished areas. Midwestern cities such as Detroit and Chicago have well-documented histories of environmental crime and urban dumping.

But in Cleveland, city officials say they’ve had enough. Their goal is to get trash off city streets and into recycling centers, landfills and trash containers

“It’s an enormous problem,” said Mike Cox, Cleveland’s director of public works. “We’re trying to fight it as best as we can.”

Soon after taking office in 2006, Mayor Frank Jackson launched the Clean Cleve- land Initiative, which aims to encourage community-led clean up efforts as well as offer rewards for community members whose tips lead to the arrest of illegal dumpers.

And though city officials aren’t ready to de- clare victory, the numbers show that things are getting better.

In 2010, the City issued 284 citations for illegal dumping and vehicles containing or hauling illegal waste — up from 215 citations.  In 2009. And while more dumpers receive fines, the amount of trash being scraped off Cleveland streets each year is starting to decline.

City workers removed 4,130 tons of waste from streets, alleyways and vacant lots in 2009, but had to deal with only 3,600 tons last year.

“Every year we’re going street-by-street,” Cox said. “We’re really trying to get this stuff out of our neighborhoods.”

Authorities say that the majority of trash in areas such as Central and Hough, is dumped by people and businesses from outside the area. Poor areas, they say, are impacted disproportionately.

“It’s not really an issue in the suburbs,” said Diane Bickett, executive director of the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District.

But, Bickett added, the responsibility for curb- ing illegal dumping falls on individual city gov- ernments, which are often preoccupied with seemingly more pressing issues such as pov- erty and crime.

The Solid Waste District did coordinate a ma- jor debris removal sweep about a decade ago that focused on hauling dumped tires from a handful of known problem areas, including the hundreds of tires that once sat outside of the now-razed buildings. But since that sweep, the City has been on its own to combat dumping.

“Cleveland is trying to make sure those sites don’t become dumping grounds again,” Bickett said, who added that she’s seen an increase in local efforts. “But if you take a drive or the RTA into the City, you see that the dumping is still going on.”

Although state and national environmental groups and public health organizations ac- knowledge the toxic effect of illegal dumping on Ohio’s cities, neither is actively running clean-up programs in Cleveland.

Federal studies on illegal dumping have noted that rodents, vermin and insects attracted by dump sites pose health risks to residents in the surrounding neighborhoods. Dump sites are also frequent targets for arson, and runoff from the trash heap could contaminate public water supplies.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said its major focus is the state’s landfills, prevent ing and monitoring major spills, and defers dumping issues to county and city agencies.

At the federal level, the U.S. EPA has partnered with local officials in Chicago and Gary, Ind. to combat illegal dumping, but there are no cur- rent partnerships with the City of Cleveland.

In fact, it’s been almost 14 years since the U.S. EPA has studied the issue of dumping here.

“The most recent report we have is from 1997,” said Jerri-Anne Garl, regional administrator for the EPA’s Region Five, which encompasses six states, including Ohio.

The study, titled the “Northeast Ohio Initiative Area Illegal Dumping Assessment Project,” was spurred by a major dumping investigation being conducted by the City of Chicago, Garl said. It included reports on Greater Chicago, the Mississippi Gateway region in southwestern Illinois, southeast Michigan, northwest Indiana and Greater Cleveland.

The report painted a grim picture of Greater Cleveland’s neighborhoods — specifically East Cleveland.

“Abandoned alleys, lots and buildings are of- ten filled with refuse,” the study reported. “The most effective deterrent has been preventing access to problem areas through boarding up or demolishing buildings and barricading or fencing alleys and lots.”

The EPA’s remedy to dumping seemed rea- sonable at the time. However, it appears that neighborhoods where boarded up houses sit are now the most ideal places to dump trash.

Environmental groups such as Ohioans for Health, Environment and Justice, Earth Day Co- alition and Neighborhood Leadership Institute have advocated on behalf of low-income com- munities and environmental injustices. When asked about dumping in Cleveland, several groups declined to comment.

Officials from East Cleveland, however, did not shy away from the issue. They know that dumping is a major problem.

“Dumping is most significant in areas that border Cleveland and East Cleveland, although it does happen in other areas,” said Belinda Kyle, executive assistant to the City’s mayor.

But unlike in Cleveland, where officials say they’ve received few, if any, tips about illegal dumping, Kyle said East Cleveland residents play a major role in cleaning up the City’s streets.

Residents of East Cleveland have been proactive at reporting dumpers and calling in tips, officials say.

East Cleveland’s Building and Housing, Ser- vice and Police departments have partnered with residents to identify problems and arrest offenders. Plus the EPA has worked with city officials to board up a number of abandoned apartments on the 1000 block of East 125th Street.

Officials say the biggest barrier to catching dumpers in the act is timing. Most dumpers come out at night – when community members are fast asleep.

“A lot of dumping occurs during hours when people aren’t alert, and it happens in lots and back streets where people don’t have a clear line of sight,” said Martin Flask, Cleveland’s di- rector of public safety. City officials say they’ve asked all Cleveland employees to keep an eye open for dump- ing while they conduct their daily business. They’ve also created a dumping hotline (216- 664-DUMP), which allows community mem- bers to report illegal activity as they see it.

“We’ve had surprisingly few tips from resi- dents,” Flask said, adding that the City also gives half of the fine money collected to any resident whose tip leads to a citation. But even without heavy resident participation, Flask said he’s happy with the progress that’s been made to curb illegal dumping.

“We’re definitely seeing something positive, but we need at least another year of data be- fore we pat ourselves on the back,” Flask said, adding, “And, I don’t care how good of a job we are doing, we can always do better.”

By Wesley Lowery; NV contributing writer