Farmers are fed up with illegal dumping around and on their land and one farmer is taking a stand.

Janna Lantz-Kolbuc is a fifth-generation farmer is located 10 Kilometres east of Calgary, her family has farmed on that piece of land since 1905 and over the past 20 years, illegal dumping has been increasing.

"For the past two decades if not longer with have seen an exponential amount of illegal dumping, anything from contractor waste to household waste, furniture, pretty much everything you would see in a landfill and a little bit more."

Lantz- Kolbuc sees a number of contributing factors as to why this is happening, one of the main factors is there are no real repercussions for anyone who is illegally dumping outside of Calgary. Lantz-Kolbuc has noted an alarming amount of contractor waste and is asking people to hold their contractors accountable, especially if people are hiring help off of Kijiji or social media, one way she suggests is by withholding payment until the contractor has provided a dump slip proving that they have disposed of the material safely and properly.

Lantz-Kolbuc, unfortunately, says that they are not alone in having to deal with this issue, "Since posting everything I have gotten messages from people all over the province and even the country and a lot of surrounding areas around Calgary so it's every one it's not just us."

Moving forward Lantz-Kolbuc is working on helping to resolve this issue, she says creating awareness is her first step, not just one to complain about something she is hoping that by raising the awareness and presenting ideas for possible solutions and sharing with people to provide the education on what to do when they find illegal dumping will get the conversation started and from there see change.

Living in Rocky View County if there is illegal dumping there are a couple of ways to deal with it, "If it's in the ditch you can report it to the county they have a form on their website, you can phone them as well and send them an email and the county will help you clean it up." However, waste on someone's private land is a different story Lantz-Kolbuc explained, "If it's in your field it's kind of your problem because it is on your property," this leaves the cost of the cleanup in the hands of the property owner.

The mess is not the only issue for farmers and landowners Lantz-Kolbuc has read stories from vets and seen other posts about the loss of animals who have eaten a plastic bag, some have even ingested construction waste or have been hurt by material scattered on their land, this is a becoming a bigger issue that is affecting the land, the livelihood of local farmers and their animals.

Lantz-Kolbuc wants people to be aware that dumping waste for the people who are doing it may be out of sight out of mind for them, but for the people who live in these areas someone has to deal with the mess they have left behind.

She has sent a letter to the City of Calgary and will be sending a letter to Rocky View County in hopes that she can help to make some changes and hold those who need to be accountable for this illegal dumping.

During the current situations surrounding COVID-19, the city landfills are still open as well the East Calgary site is open seven days a week, see rates and hours of operation here.

Wheatland County operates several waste transfer sites and there is no cost to residents, see hours of operation and current restrictions here due to COVID-19.