Camarillo, CA Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Sec. 120 casts an unusually wide net over illegal dumping, prohibiting anyone from being made to dump, deposit, release, spill, leak, pump, pour, emit, empty, discharge, inject, bury, or dispose into the environment any solid waste on any premises in the city, including abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles, unless it happens in an authorized container or at a permitted collection facility. The prohibition covers passive conduct too: a property owner who merely causes, suffers, or permits solid waste to accumulate unlawfully on their land is equally liable, not just the person who physically dumps it.

Because Ch. 04 does not set its own fine schedule, an illegal dumping violation falls under the citywide general penalty in Sec. 020, which makes any code violation a misdemeanor, unless the offense is specifically classified in this code or by state law as an infraction, the city attorney reduces the charge to an infraction, an infraction citation is issued, or a civil penalty is imposed. Sec. 020(D) treats each day a dumped pile remains as a new and separate violation, and Sec. 020(E) makes the property owner separately liable for a tenant's or occupant's dumping.

Related sections reinforce the ban: Sec. 090 bars scavenging through containers, and Sec. 124 separately criminalizes collecting solid waste from any premises without a city franchise, with each day of unauthorized collection its own offense.