Grand Forks, ND Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Article 5 of the Grand Forks sanitation code targets dumping outside the regulated landfill system. Section 13-0504 makes it unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation to dump or place earth, bricks, concrete, sod, sand, gravel, dirt, clay, wood, iron, steel, rocks, stone, refuse, garbage, or rubbish along or on any river bank or dike of the Red River of the North, and separately bars throwing or depositing the same materials directly into the river. Section 13-0505 broadens the prohibition to any street, alley, or other public place, and to private property regardless of ownership, whenever the dumped material creates a health hazard, nuisance, or unsightly condition, unless the director of public works has given written approval.

Landfill dumping itself remains tightly controlled under § 13-0501, which channels all garbage, refuse, and waste hauling through the direction of the superintendent of the department of sanitation, with residents paying the fee schedule set under § 13-0502 and nonresidents paying a separate contracted or scheduled rate; the landfill operates under § 13-0503 only from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily, closed Sundays and city-observed legal holidays. Dumping outside those channels, whether at the riverbank or anywhere else in the city, falls to § 13-0506 for enforcement, which treats every separate load or act of dumping as its own offense rather than allowing a single fine to cover repeated conduct.