Larry Seidel fed steel cable Wednesday as his coworker rappelled 300 feet down the side of Pinehurst Road near Moraga to hook a mangled Pontiac Grand Prix that could have been contaminating runoff that feeds reservoirs for years.
“Big fish on the line, coming right up,” Seidel said as he pulled the lever to start the Grand Prix’s gravity-defying ride back up the hillside to a flatbed to haul it for proper disposal.
The two men working for Berry Brothers Towing & Transport on Wednesday were contracted by East Bay Municipal Utility District to remove the Grand Prix and at least two more cars dumped illegally off the side of Pinehurst Road near Canyon Road and down an embankment that feeds drinking water reservoirs to residents in much of Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
It was the second cleanup in two months for the water resources agency, which says it has removed eight tons of trash from 12 locations at EBMUD water sites this year alone.
EBMUD removed another eight abandoned cars at its cleanup in July. The $280,000 the district has spent since July 2021 to clean up trash in the East Bay watershed is money that should instead go toward water service, according to district public information officer Nelsy Rodriguez.
“This is the water that we drink. This is the water that we eat, drink and shower with; of course, it is raw, and we will treat it so it is safe when it comes out of your tap. But it just makes everything harder and more expensive,” Nelsy said of the abandoned cars as the towing crew staged to pull the Pontiac. “We’re really fortunate to live where we live and we’re really fortunate to have the water supply that we have — it comes straight from the Sierra Nevada mountains. We’re hoping that the public recognizes we’re really lucky. There’s no reason that we should be dumping trash here.”
Some of the cars are stolen and dumped, others abandoned for insurance purposes. Most are stumbled upon, and East Bay Regional Parks District’s police officers check to see if the car is stolen.
Beyond cars, the utility district often finds sites large enough to suggest that commercial trash haulers are illegally dumping industrial amounts of automotive parts and landscaping debris as well as furniture, bicycles, mattresses, toys and hazardous waste materials.
To remove this junk, the utility district contracts with tree trimmers and towing companies, which it turns out are well-equipped for this kind of work, according to East Bay Municipal Utility District Manager Mark Silva.
“It’s disheartening,” Silva said. “Me and my crew are supposed to be taking care of the watershed.”
To confront and solve the problem, East Bay Municipal Utility District asks Alameda and Contra Costa counties residents to consider the following:
- Report any illegal dumps to non-emergency local law enforcement
- Ensure that any trash hauler you hire provides a receipt from a legal dump site.