Let’s talk trash…yes, pollution that violates state law that local governments in Bandera County for decades have found difficult to enforce.
With the beginning of election season, candidates are fashioning their positions on issues in their campaigns. Prior to a meet-the-candidates forum by the League of Women Voters on January 31, I received an email from a candidate asking if I would review a draft of a white paper, “Challenges of ‘Trash’ on Private Property.” I found it well-researched and could provide the framework for a plan to enforce laws passed by the Texas legislature on illegal dumping and trash accumulation as a health and safety hazard.
The “Challenges” draft drew me to the LWV forum to interview the candidates for Bandera County Judge. I learned that each was concerned with the same issue of the buildup of trash on private property in the county.
Here are some of the details on a deeper look into the state laws on trash buildup:
• Bandera County Commissioners in 1996 adopted regulations and orders pursuant to the Texas Littler Abatement Act.
• There is another code (Section 365.012) against illegal dumping or permitting dumping of trash on private property that is not a registered landfill.
• The Texas Health and Safety Code (Section 343.01) on Abatement of Public Nuisances sets regulations to maintain sanitary conditions, including prohibiting activities that may harm public health or safety.
• Section 365.034 of Health & Safety Code says the Commissioners Court may order private property owners to remove solid waste and, if noncompliant, the county can remove it and assess the costs against them.
• Property owners who allow or do not properly secure their property against trash accumulation that is hazardous, dangerous or unsanitary can be fined from $500 to $10,000 and up to two years in jail, depending on the amount and type of pollution. Residents themselves have initiated cleanup solutions by forming nonprofit groups such as the Medina River Protection Fund and Don’t Make Waste Bandera (see DMWB.net).
But local government is still absolutely needed if pollution is to be addressed countywide. There is precedence for this type of private-public cooperation. In 2022 DMWB joined with Commissioner Jody Rutherford to resurrect countywide recycling, utilizing his Precinct 4 dump site next to Mansfield Park as the county’s central recycling site.
Until his death last month, Precinct 2 commissioner Greg Grothues worked with DMWB to establish a satellite site for collection of recyclables at the Lakehills dump. The return of recycling to the county with volunteer labor has been a remarkable success. More recently, former commissioner Bobby Harris was appointed to fill the vacancy left by Grothues.
And then there is the Adopta- County-Road program, conceived by Bridlegate Ranch residents and led by Mike Stiborik, which County Commissioners modeled after the TxDOT program on state highways. Roads and bridges director John Andrade has worked to provide supplies, signs and protection to neighborhood groups adopting two-mile segments of county roads.
Of course, the problem of buildup of trash on private property is not adequately addressed by recycling or road pickups. So DMWB formed the Yards Project with another nonprofit, the Silver Sage Hill Country Resource Center, to coordinate voluntary efforts in clearing trash from the yards of the elderly and disabled.
Meals-on-Wheels clients needed help for a neighborhood cleanup in the Wharton’s Dock area. During the entire month of December 2003, DMWB and Silver Sage worked with residents there, led by Lupita Cole, to remove trash from the yards of 21 homes. With the cooperation of Lake Medina Shores Owners Association, which runs the dump in that area, ten tons of trash and another ton of recyclables were removed with volunteer labor.
In 2025, Silver Sage conducted a survey of Meals-on-Wheels clients countywide. Requests were received from twenty more residents in the MOW program. A corporate grant of $10,000 from Pinegate Renewables— added to donations from Bandera County residents—permitted the removal of another estimated twelve tons of trash and eight tons of recyclables.
In the three decades since the county issued regulations under the Texas Litter Abatement Act there is scant evidence of enforcement on private properties, including vacant lots by absentee owners. The Pebble Beach Owners Association tried enforcement via the local constable and the district court for two years, but the process was too drawn out as the absentee owners failed to respond.
It has become increasingly clear that the effort to clean trash from private property will take the joint effort of local governments, state agencies, nonprofits, local neighborhood associations and many volunteers. As a private citizen concerned with the preservation of a beautiful rural environment threatened by pollution, you may approach the voting booth with this in mind and hold candidates true to their promises as public stewards.
Robert Brischetto is president of Don’t Make Waste Bandera. For complete disclosure, DMWB is a 501(c)(3) public charity and cannot endorse candidates for public office.
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