Lincoln County, SD Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

Lincoln County Code § 90.01 bars any person from creating, committing, or maintaining a nuisance anywhere in the unincorporated area of the county, and § 90.02 lists litter among the illustrative enumeration of nuisances that follow. Under § 90.02(O), it is a nuisance to discard, abandon, allow to accumulate, scatter, or deposit garbage, rubbish, trash, or other waste material on private or public property outside an approved container or solid waste facility, or to let such waste be carried onto a neighbor's property by wind or water.

The Planning Director, per § 90.03, is authorized to enforce the chapter and can deputize other county employees, including the Sheriff's Department, to assist. Section 90.04 gives the Planning Director a right of entry to inspect suspected violations, requiring credentials to be shown at an occupied property or a reasonable effort to locate the owner at an unoccupied one, and lets the county pursue an inspection warrant if entry is refused. Before any penalty attaches, § 90.05 requires the Planning Director to serve the person maintaining the dumping with written notice to abate, which may be sent by mail.

Ignoring that notice within the time it allows is itself unlawful under § 90.06, and the Planning Director must then notify the State's Attorney. Section 90.99 sets the penalty at a Class 2 misdemeanor, up to 30 days in jail, a $200 fine, or both, with each day the dumped waste remains constituting a separate offense. The county can also pursue a civil abatement action under SDCL §§ 21-10-5 through 21-10-9 instead of, or in addition to, criminal prosecution.