By james art 
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – A major update on the illegal dumping problem near Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport where two people were found burned to death on October 29th.
Airport officials told WBRC that illegal dumping is a crime, and although it’s been a problem for years, their contractor works daily to clear mounds of trash and debris.
TIG Contractors say they were hired for this cleanup effort back in 2022, and since then this large scale illegal dumping has been a recurring problem that they are doing their best to keep under control.
The scale of this problem is mind-boggling and in the last year alone they have removed more than 2.8 million pounds of trash.
James Densmore, founder and president of TIG Contractors, said, “We’re here every day on the airport grounds, so we’re actually hauling debris four to five times a week, and that’s multiple truckloads.”
The problem is by the time they leave with a load of trash to take away, there is already more trash dumped in the area.
“You know it’s not like a neighborhood cleanup where you can go in and pick up the trash. A lot of this stuff is extremely heavy like construction debris and things like that. So we have to have heavy-duty equipment like grapple trucks, dump trailers and things like that to deal with that problem,” Densmore said.
BAA says they are only allowed to clean their properties, not the community or city streets.
“People assume that all the property in that area is owned by the airport, but a lot of times that’s not the case. We have maps that identify who actually owns the property and we will get that information and get it to the person who needs it,” Densmore said.
BAA says they currently spend close to $700,000 a year on the ongoing cleanup.
Birmingham Airport Authority said in a statement: “We understand the frustration felt by neighbours. This is where they live. We are constantly working with them to try to mitigate the problem as best we can and to keep them informed of our efforts.”
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