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Man Charged With Dumping Paint
April 20, 2015
An Escambia County man is facing a felony charge after allegedly dumping dozens of gallons of paint into the ground.
Ezequiel Santos-Gomez was charged with littering in any quantity for commercial purposes, a third degree felony, and disposal at an unpermitted sold waste facility.
Escambia County Code Enforcement received an anonymous complaint about the improper disposal of paint. Code Enforcement and Florida Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement officers responded and found an excavated pit that was 5-feet wide, 11-feet long and 4-feet deep. They reported finding white paint around and inside the pit, along with about 100 five-gallon plastic buckets stacked adjacent to the pit, located in a residential area near Pensacola Christian College.
Santos-Gomez reportedly told officers that he checked an could only dispose of 20 gallons per day at the landfill.
It was estimated that 60 gallons of paint had been dumped in the pit.
Comments
17 Responses to “Man Charged With Dumping Paint”
As part of its Sanitation program, ECUA will accept paint as a “hazardous waste” and will pick it up at a customer’s doorstep. Call 476-0480 to make an appointment for pickup of hazardous wastes. I’m not sure that we would pick up 100 cans at once, or that we would take them from a professional painter, but small amounts by residential Sanitation customers will be taken.
So he had to make 3 trips to the dump, Was that to hard? He could have donated to Habitat for Humanity for one and there are plenty of others that would have taken it so that it could have been used. I’m am also a southerner @SOUTHENER and I take pride in where I live.
Now that it’s been discovered, is there any way to clean up the paint in the ground before it sinks down to the groundwater? Littering is a problem all over. I have to pick up other people’s trash from my yard several times a week because low-life jerks throw stuff out the window of their car as they pass my house. If somebody threw a paint can in my yard and I saw it, you can be sure that I would get the car’s description to the police!
Sadly there are still many that think it is perfectly okay and a God given right to fill a ditch or gully outback with whatever garbage they generate.
Or dump it on someone else’s property.
Or along side a road some where.
With graffiti problems all across the county, we would be better off if the recycle station would accept all liquid paint in cans/buckets. In the graffiti capitol of the west (Southern California) all liquid paint is collected, blended together, and thinned out with recycled white paint.. Thousands of gallons of ‘graffiti tan’ cover-up paint is then used by county laborers to mask graffiti and freshed up blighted areas. This doesn’t excuse dumping and poLluting, but would help painters/contractors properly dispose of much-needed paint for county projects, saving taxpayers much-needed dollars.
@Southerner: I see your ilk every day. Garbage from fast food restaurants, ” disposable” diapers, household garbage, thrown on the streets every day. A pox on you and your household.
In the past, people used to mix old paints and used the paint, called “institutional gray”.
It is probably still done.
southerner…..you do live on this planet correct? do you no realize the damage done to our environment and water supply by the toxic chemicals? enjoy drinking the paint when it comes out of your faucet.
>>>>”A felony charge? for dumping paint? Are there any dangerous criminals that need to caught?”
______
What would you like the police to do? They got a call that a crime was being committed. They responded, prevented further damage, and took the suspect into custody. If you have useful information about dangerous criminals, give them a call…maybe they can do that instead.
The police didn’t decide it was a felony, the FL Legislature did.
Why shouldn’t pollution of our drinking water be a felony? I despise big government more than most but its most important function is to protect us from danger. He dumped the paint just around the corner from Habitat Store where it could have bee donated. ECUA also has a recycling program that includes paint. NO EXCUSE for such irresponsibility!
@ southerner So you think his contribution to contamination of our ground water isn’t something for a felony charge? I beg to differ. We need to keep this from happening. No excuses.
Why not donate it? Unless it was somehow useless no matter the color someone could have found something to paint with it even as an undercoat.
@southerner Your attitude is terrible, and you sound like one the numerous litterbugs us good folk have to clean up after. Can’t believe you live in such a beautiful part of the world and don’t care about it.
A felony charge? for dumping paint? Are there any dangerous criminals that need to caught?
This is the type of thing that ruins the environment, when people decide to dump paint, oil, and a variety of chemicals somewhere. It all goes somewhere and that somewhere is our water table.
If thay would stop the stupid stuff and limits on stuff like this and it would not happen
Wow, was this good paint? Why throw it away? Somebody could surely have used it for painting something, seems like.