HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. -- Questions into dumped asphalt along a major road in Hillsborough County are now prompting an environmental investigation.
ABC Action News reached out to the Environmental Protection Commission in Hillsborough County to see if complaints have been filed about the asphalt debris off 56th Street.
Near the CSX tracks, just before Henry Avenue, drivers are greeted with a giant eyesore as there are large piles of broken down road debris.
“It’s a big mess,” said James Jones, who drives past it every other day.
“It’s just a bad eyesore that needs to be cleaned up,” he said.
ABC Action News first did a story two months ago after a woman was arrested for allegedly dumping asphalt along the CSX tracks.
CSX has railroad tracks near the debris, so they have posted signs that say they are recording, and that dumping is illegal.
Our questions to the EPC prompted an environmental investigation.
ABC Action News has learned that they will be the agency responsible to find out whose property the debris is on, and to make sure it is cleaned up.
The agency’s senior environmental manager tells us that this would be considered construction and demolition debris and it is to be properly disposed at a solid waste facility permitted by the EPC or Florida’s department of environmental protection.
As far as environmental concerns, the agency said that they don’t anticipate the asphalt debris would posed a greater environmental or pollution threat than any other asphalt on the adjacent roadways.
But in an email they wrote, “however, as part of any investigation by the EPC, the possibility of the presence of other materials which may pose a threat of pollution will be addressed.”
ABC Action News reached out to CSX about the debris near their railroad tracks, and they released the following statement:
"CSX contractors will remove the remainder of the asphalt that was illegally dumped on our property by the end of the month."
