Given its manpower, the Warren County Sheriff’s Department pursues illegal dumping on county roads &#8220aggressively,” said Sheriff Martin Pace, even if deputies are rarely able to catch litterers in the act.

Tuesday afternoon, however, authorities were in the right place at the right time: A county work crew spotted a man dumping siding from his truck on Warriors Trail in Bovina around 1:30 p.m., just off U.S. 80 near the railroad overpass crossing the Big Black River. The crew alerted Pace, whose deputies caught up with the man on Interstate 20.

The man was handed a $200 littering citation, will face a court date and, more importantly, agreed to go back to the site and clean up after himself.

&#8220That doesn’t happen as often as we’d like,” said Pace, who added a judge would have likely ordered the man out to clean it up if he had refused. &#8220There are just a lot of areas of the county that make it very easy for someone to pull up and dump something and pull off without being seen.”

It’s virtually impossible for authorities to cite rogue dumpers unless they’re caught in the act or unless someone calls in to report illegal trash. Even in many of those cases, said District 1 Supervisor David McDonald, if there’s no eyewitness or some kind of identifier among the refuse, the county still winds up picking up the cost.

&#8220It’s an expensive problem in the county, especially out in this area where you have holes and ravines right off the road and people throw it off in one of these deep holes thinking nobody sees it,” said McDonald, whose district includes the area where the man was caught Tuesday. &#8220We were lucky we caught him this time but a lot of times that cost is picked up by the taxpayer.”

McDonald estimated the county spends around $200,000 annually on hiring a contractor to pick up appliances, garbage, tires and other discarded junk.

&#8220We probably spend enough on cleaning up dumps that we could pave two or three roads,” he said.

The fine for illegal dumping under county ordinances is $100 to $500, said Volunteer Fire Coordinator and Environmental Officer Kelly Worthy, who called picking up after dumpers &#8220a daily activity.” He said he’s used various means for spotting them the past several years, including cameras.

Usually, though, catching dumpers requires help from residents, or being in the right place at the right time.

&#8220They will be charged if we catch somebody illegally dumping,” he said.