Apple Valley, MN Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Section 50.06 of the Apple Valley Code of Ordinances, adopted by the Apple Valley City Council, is a single sentence with six named places. No person can deposit refuse or yard waste in or upon any public street, public waters or the ice thereon, shoreland areas adjacent to public ponds or lakes, public lands, public storm sewer systems, or in or upon any private land without the consent of the owner. The list reaches Dakota County-area ponds and lakes inside the city and the storm sewer system as well as streets and parkland.

The section prints no penalty of its own. Section 10.99(A) fills that gap: anyone who violates a provision of the code for which another penalty is not specifically provided is, upon conviction, subject to a fine not exceeding the maximum fine for a misdemeanor set forth in M.S. Chapter 609, imprisonment for a term not exceeding the maximum sentence for a misdemeanor set forth in M.S. Chapter 609, or both. A separate offense is deemed committed upon each day during which a violation occurs or continues.

Cleanup is a second track. Under § 50.07(A), any accumulation of refuse, recyclables or yard waste on any premises not stored in containers which comply with the chapter, or which has remained there for more than two weeks, is declared a public nuisance. The city, through its authorized employees, has the right to remove the materials, abate the nuisance, and collect the cost of the removal and abatement in the same manner and under the same procedures set forth for other unpaid charges for municipal utilities and special services. Section 50.07 cross-references § 94.18 for immediate abatement.

Lawful disposal is spelled out elsewhere in the chapter. A household or business that hauls its own material under § 50.03(B)(4) can unload garbage and refuse only at a designated sanitary landfill, municipal solid waste composting facility, resource recovery facility or other facility authorized to accept the waste, and under (B)(6) yard waste is privately composted or unloaded only at a compost facility or through licensed collectors. Section 50.08 makes it unlawful to locate, operate or maintain a public or private solid waste disposal site wherein refuse or materials of any kind are dumped, deposited or stored without first obtaining a permit from the Council.