Inuvik (June 06/03) - The Inuvik spring cleanup has been extended an extra week to allow residents some extra time to clean up and groups a chance to get some cash.

Matthew Armstrong, a summer student employed at the dump, cleans up a pile of trash illegally dumped at the gates. - NNSL photo

Bobbie Despres, a town employee, said a local business has offered to match some cash from the town for some extra effort.

The town is divided into 12 zones where non-profit organizations can clean up the area in exchange for $300.

Despres said the NorthMart has offered to kick into a corporate challenge that will see local business challenged to clean up the zones.

"Upon completion of that zone, the town would issue a cheque for $300 and the NorthMart would match that, with the stipulation that the $600 would go to a non-profit organization," he said.

He said seven of the 12 zones were completed as of Tuesday, but they were hoping to have all 12 finished by this Sunday.

During the cleanup week, businesses and residents can take refuse to the dump at no charge and derelict vehicles, appliances or other waste will be picked up at no charge.

The cleanup will go until Sunday.

No dumping

Some residents are having a hard time taking their garbage to the dump during operating hours and that has the landfill contractors hopping mad.

Barbara Armstrong of A&B Salvage said they thought the town had been educated once on the hours of operation, but said people are once again dumping their waste at the gates.

When A&B first took the landfill contract, the gate was open seven days per week, but they couldn't maintain that schedule.

"There are members of our population that think we should be open 24/7, but we can't accommodate that, so this is what they do," Armstrong says, gesturing at the decaying mess of used tissues, fast food containers and other household waste at her feet.

Further adding to the mess, the ravens pick through the discarded trash and leave what they don't want to blow into the wind.

Polluters face a $1,000 fine for dumping trash, but no one has been fined to date, but bylaw will go through the trash to try to determine where the garbage came from.

"Bylaw is supposed to come by and get garbage, like envelopes with people's names on it, so they can claim some ownership to it," Armstrong said.

She said it's an ongoing problem that people were used to dumping their trash at all hours and they haven't adjusted to the new hours.

They started opening 12 hours per day and left bins at the gates for people who would otherwise just dump their waste at the gate, but those were taken away.

"With the implementation of tipping fees, businesses were using them," Armstrong said.

"They were waiting 'til the landfill was closed and morning after morning, the bins would be filled with business garbage."

"The system was being abused."

Armstrong said the public seemed to be coming around to the practise of using the landfill properly, but the gate dumps have increased in recent months.

The hours of the landfill are:

-9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday.

-1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.