LAWTON – Litterbugs and illegal trash dumpers will face stiff penalties under an amended ordinance the City Council endorsed recently.
Littering is now defined as discarding any material of less than 4 cubic feet, and illegal dumping is defined as depositing material of 4 or more cubic feet, on public property, on private property owned by another without that person’s consent, or upon one’s own private property “in violation of any municipal zoning or public health regulations…” The penalty for conviction of littering will be a fine of $300 and/ or incarceration in the city jail for up to 60 days. The penalty for illegal dumping will be a fine of $750 and/or 60 days in the city jail. Both offenses are misdemeanors.
The ordinance targets anyone who intentionally “places, throws, drops, dumps, deposits, or discards any garbage, trash, waste, rubbish, refuse, debris, or other deleterious substance” at a location other than an appropriate trash receptacle.
The ordinance declares that discovery of two or more items that have been “dropped, dumped, deposited, discarded, placed, or thrown at one location” and which “bear a common address in a form that tends to identify the latest owner of the items” will create a “rebuttable presumption that any person” who resides at that address “committed the unlawful act” and thus will be subject to prosecution and punishment.