Jefferson and Belmont County officials said illegal dumps have been popping up for years, but catching people dumping can be a real obstacle.

For nearly 40 years, Betty Elerick has called Badgerburg Road home.

It's her place of peace and quiet, but if Elerick's eyes travel beyond the road's edge, she said she sees disgust.

Furniture, tires, bags of trash cover the hillside, making Elerick’s neighborhood an illegal dump.

Elerick said, “It looks like trash. It's pathetic. They wouldn't want someone going to their house and throw stuff in their yard."

Elerick isn't alone.

Belmont County authorities have been battling these illegal dumps for years, but they’ve only tracked them for the past 25.

In 2007 Belmont County officials counted 217 illegal dumps on 153 different rural roads.

Often times a place with a pull off to the side of the road becomes the site of an illegal dump.

Even mounting fencing to posts hasn't stopped people from illegally dumping garbage.

The Belmont-Jefferson Regional Solid Waste Authority has a hard time stopping illegal sites.

Board of Trustees Chair, Mark Thomas, said, “The biggest issue we have with the dumps is our inability to catch people breaking the law. A large part of this dumping if not the majority of it, takes place at night."

Thomas said another obstacle authorities face is weak litter laws.

“Punishment for a first or second offense in Ohio in essence is a slap on the wrist,” said Thomas.

To make matters worse, in Belmont County, not everyone has trash pick-up.

So, homeowners are left to get rid of garbage themselves.

Thomas said too often, people toss the trash.

The Solid Waste Authority is taking a stronger stance on illegal dumps.

They hope to soon create a staff of litter control officers.

“They would not only clean up our roads,” said Thomas, “but try and find the people who are breaking Ohio’s litter laws."

Elerick hopes those officers enforce the message.

“Take their own trash to their own property and put it where it belongs, not on our back roads,” said Elerick.

That way, Elerick and her neighbors can get back to rural life without the litter.