SALT POND — Tires, batteries, beer bottles, tents, cigarette butts, a couch, “you name it, it’s in the bushes,” Kaua‘i resident Dominick Di Bartolomeo said regarding the Westside’s Salt Pond area. He said he spent Friday and Saturday morning at
SALT POND — Tires, batteries, beer bottles, tents, cigarette butts, a couch, “you name it, it’s in the bushes,” Kaua‘i resident Dominick Di Bartolomeo said regarding the Westside’s Salt Pond area.
He said he spent Friday and Saturday morning at Burns Field Point filling his truck multiple times with garbage left behind by those who could seemingly care less about the “pristine beauty” of the area.
“It’s the most beautiful place to disrespect,” he said. “What bums me out is that most of the trash is about 50 feet from the ocean.”
Mark Stiglmeier of Kalaheo agreed.
“Kaua‘i is beautiful and people are trashing it,” he said Thursday, adding that someone is “turning a blind eye.”
The amount of trash at Salt Pond Beach Park and Burns Field has easily doubled within the past year, Di Bartolomeo said. “I can’t even believe how bad it’s gotten.”
The economy is a likely factor, as some of the individual’s who have taken up temporary residence in the area say they have lost their jobs or homes and are in the process of seeking new employment and housing, Di Bartolomeo said. “They have no choice.”
But while some individuals keep their areas nice, there are others who “just have no respect,” he said.
“What really kills me is that there’s a dump down the road,” he added.
County parks maintenance staff care for Salt Pond Beach Park on a daily basis and pick up any litter they may find, Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Kylan Dela Cruz said in an e-mail.
“The county is proactive in supplying multiple trash and recycling bins for the public’s use at our parks,” he said. “We must rely on the public to be good stewards of our parks and public places and for the most part they are.”
As far as Burns Field, state Department of Transportation spokesperson Tammy Mori said they were unaware of the situation prior to The Garden Island’s inquires this week.
“We haven’t received any complaints about this area and our airports grounds crew does periodic inspections of the outlying areas every month or so,” she wrote in an e-mail Friday. “There was no rubbish piled up during the last inspection, which was last month.”
But when the DOT’s ground crews recently arrived to check it out — before Di Bartolomeo’s clean-up — they were “very disheartened by what they saw,” she said. A team is currently being assembled to begin maintenance, she added.
Mori said the situation really “reflects a community-wide problem which requires a community-wide solution.”
“This is an ongoing continual battle for each of us,” she said.
Areas specifically targeted for dumping are often those which are “more remote and near the beachline,” she said regarding outlying airport properties.
Di Bartolomeo said he is hopeful there will soon be a “beach clean-up rally.”
If not, Stiglmeier said, “a few people are going to ruin this for everyone.”
Di Bartolomeo agreed, saying, the worst thing that could happen is they’ll fence off the area.
Salt Pond is advertised as one of the best beaches on island, he said. “You’ve got to back that up.”
The Kaua‘i Police Department did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
