Home Contra Costa County Supervisor Burgis Working to Prevent Illegal Dumping on BNSF Railway Property in Knightsen

Supervisor Burgis Working to Prevent Illegal Dumping on BNSF Railway Property in Knightsen

by ECT

Contra Costa County Board of Supervisor Diane Burgis is seeking to prevent the continued dumping of vehicles on property owned by BNSF Railway Company in Knightsen.

Most notably, there is an RV parked on the property that they are seeking to have removed.

According to a July 28 letter to Don Maddy, executive director at BNSF Railway Company, the letter charges BNSF of allowing their property to become dumping ground.

The letter says:

“Your property has become a dumping ground and is a public nuisance for the Town of Knightsen and those who drive through it. The community has had to deal with not only the abandoned RV on your property, but also a stolen ATM Machine and now another RV with squatters.”

according to Lea Castleberry, Deputy Chief of Staff, the Contra Costa County Sheriffs Office has already removed the ATM machine, however, illegal dumping is also now occurring on the site and becoming a problem to residents of Knightsen.

Supervisor Burgis stated the railway company has a responsibility to keep their property up to code.

“The Town of Knightsen is a small country community with a population of just over 1500, most born and raised in Knightsen,” said Supervisor Burgis.  “This community takes great pride in where they live.  Those who moved to Knightsen chose this community because of its ‘small-town feel’ and no person or community should have to deal with looking at this abandoned and now vandalized recreational vehicle that centers their small-town community.  The Railroad has a responsibility to the community as a property owner to keep their land up to code, and I will hold them to it.”

As of August 9, BNSF has not taken any action on the property according to Castleberry.

You may also like

14 comments

SW Aug 10, 2017 - 8:28 am

With over 32,000 miles of track to take care of it’ll be interesting to see how fast BNSF jump on this.

Now lets talk about illegal dumping in Contra Costa County as a whole. When it costs $52 to dump a refrigerator or AC unit and $66 to dump a queen size mattress and box spring you can see why we have all this refuse being dumped on the side of our roads. I’m not arguing that high rates are a means of justifying this practice of dumping but if you’ve just been forced to move quickly or evicted there is probably a good chance that you’re wallet is looking slim.

It was last year that I moved my daughter out of her apartment in Chico and had to take a bunch of junk to the Butte County landfill. The minimum charge, for up to 540 pounds is $10, mattresses are free and you only pay for refrigerators or AC units after the first two.

It seems to me that the County supervisors should revisit the fee schedule as we’re paying for it in other ways – expensive clean-up by County employees and unsightly piles of garbage along our County roads.

JanBunz Aug 10, 2017 - 10:14 am

In response to SW’s I couldn’t have said it any better. It’s no wonder people have junk in their drive ways etc. Then, here in Oakley, you have code enforcement watching your every move, writing citations. I believe some people who do have “slim wallets” panic with all the code violations and penalties then are pushed to do nasty things like dump where they shouldn’t. Our fees are absolutely ridiculous here in CCC.

We lived in Nashville a few years and there wasn’t a a fee period to take things to the landfill. It was FREE. and yes their highways and by-ways were without trash! A lovely state.

BNSF may own the land, but come on…. Can’t someone else get the squatters out?

Joe Vasco Aug 10, 2017 - 10:57 am

The dump use to be reasonably cheap. Sadly politics jumped in and we are paying through the nose. Check out political contributions to supervisors. When you are done with that look at the 1.3 million dollar slush fund from Glovers district through our dump fees. It’s called Keller Canyon mitigation.Did any of that money resort to cleaning our roads? No, check out the beneficiaries of the dump mitigation fees. You will see church groups, youth groups, and many questionable funds spent. None to clean up the actual mitigation needed related to dumping. What’s more important is that the debris dumped and not cleaned up by county maintenance has chemicals, flammables, and light plastics that seep and drain into our water shed. Check out the bio filter on Vasco. It has disgarded gas containers near it. No one maintains any of that.All the municipal wells and private wells are affected. Vasco watershed is being polluted with chemical run off due to lack of dumping maintenance. Even now there are warnings about eating fish here. Bring back the day of an inexpensive dump fee and many of these problems will go away. As far as vehicles and rv’s, there is a vin number on each easily traceable to the last owner. Community development should assist law enforcement to track these people down and make them pay the vehicle cleanup. Our county is failing us on east county general maintenance.

Yard dawg Aug 10, 2017 - 11:44 am

mis burgis should not be just looking at bnsf she should be worried about the whole east coco county i work for a company that has to tow these junk rvs boats etc and im the one who has to deal with the dismantling of them the local dump charges us an arm and a leg for just the camper parts and we get stuck with the frames and the human waste and etc we dont have any funding from the county or citys its costing us a great deal of time and money and some of these things are just flat out gross….

Lack of respect Aug 10, 2017 - 1:36 pm

Obviously some lo-life scum bag doesn’t have any pride or respect in his life. It’s wide spread lazy disrespectful people always causing trouble and making a mess for the honest hardworking of our communities. This is not BNSF’s fault.

Nick Aug 10, 2017 - 2:49 pm

I understand SW’s argument – the fees are too high. But that’s an ASSUMPTION. We lived in a city in Southern CA where the dump was FREE and people still dumped on the side of the road, etc.

It’s LAZINESS! It’s easier to dump (wherever) vrs. going to the dump. It’s not any different than littering – while most of us find a garbage can. A lot of dumping is dome by ILLEGALS (who don’t care about America) or employees dumping work crap. I’ve seen it happen.

The fee is to high is an EXCUSE! Some people refuse to go to a dump – PERIOD!

Joe Vasco Aug 10, 2017 - 3:08 pm

The dump use to be reasonably cheap. Sadly politics jumped in and we are paying through the nose. Check out political contributions to supervisors. When you are done with that look at the 1.3 million dollar slush fund from Glovers district through our dump fees. It’s called Keller Canyon mitigation.Did any of that money resort to cleaning our roads? No, check out the beneficiaries of the dump mitigation fees. You will see church groups, youth groups, and many questionable funds spent. None to clean up the actual mitigation needed related to dumping. What’s more important is that the debris dumped and not cleaned up by county maintenance has chemicals, flammables, and light plastics that seep and drain into our water shed. Check out the bio filter on Vasco. It has disgarded gas containers near it. No one maintains any of that.All the municipal wells and private wells are affected. Vasco watershed is being polluted with chemical run off due to lack of dumping maintenance. Even now there are warnings about eating fish here. Bring back the day of an inexpensive dump fee and many of these problems will go away. As far as vehicles and rv’s, there is a vin number on each easily traceable to the last owner. Community development should assist law enforcement to track these people down and make them pay the vehicle cleanup. Our county is failing us on east county general maintenance.

Yard dawg Aug 10, 2017 - 4:54 pm

my company is really the only one who comes out and picks this junk up when called and when we get them to our yard its up to me and my boss the owner of my company to come up with ways to dispose of them we are currently overwhelmed with boats and rvs yes we can send the last registered owner into collections but who knows when or if we will see any money from it i agree it is a problem my girl sees that thing on her way to work every day and im not looking forward to seeing it in my yard yes i know its job security but not having the right equipment for this problem and it comes out of my company’s money how the hell am i ever gonna get a raise??????

No more dumping works for us Aug 10, 2017 - 6:16 pm

Glad to see our east county supv is looking at this. We see this dumping all the time. Thanks Diane.

Tired of the same old shit Aug 10, 2017 - 7:00 pm

wth no one has any feedback or negative things to say…..

Yard dawg Aug 10, 2017 - 8:23 pm

well said JOE VASCO

Yard dawg Aug 10, 2017 - 8:24 pm

really ect

Patriot Aug 11, 2017 - 6:40 am

I have a log of phone calls to BNSF regarding this specific RV dump. An agent DID return my call finally, told me he was on site, and explained that he could not find a company that could tow the RV from the site because of the lack of tires (stolen) and the size of the RV. He was going to have to go to his boss, who would have to go to his boss, who would have to go to his boss in order to get the authorization to have the unit dismantled and removed. My phone calls began on May 15, 2017. I was told 34 years ago when I moved here that you get answers from God quicker than the railroad. I have found it to be true in 9 out of 10 complaints.

Stop the dumping Aug 18, 2017 - 4:56 am

And now there are mattresses dumped on the corner. Jeez

Comments are closed.