Pasco, WA Trash & Recycling: Illegal Dumping (2026)

PMC 8.05.270, titled "Destination," targets exactly the conduct behind illegal dumping complaints: hauling solid waste through the City and unloading it somewhere other than a site the City or its contracted transfer station operator has designated. The only carve-out is waste being taken to an approved salvage or recycling operation. The City or its transfer station operator sets the authorized dumping site under PMC 8.05.280, and that site must be run to approved sanitary standards. Scavenging or salvaging waste at a City- or contractor-owned transfer station is separately banned under PMC 8.05.290.

Enforcement of the whole solid waste chapter, including the dumping ban, runs through a City-appointed supervisor empowered under PMC 8.05.020 to issue complaint citations, with unresolved disputes going to the City Manager. PMC 8.05.340 sets the penalty: any person or entity violating any provision of the chapter, including the destination rule, is deemed to have committed a civil infraction and is subject to the civil penalty set out in PMC 1.40.050(5), plus court costs and statutory assessments on top of the base fine. Where a residence or commercial establishment is found noncompliant in Municipal Court, the court can also enter an abatement order directing the violator to correct the condition within a time limit not exceeding 30 days, or letting the City abate it at the violator's cost.

This dumping-destination rule sits alongside the broader public-nuisance provisions in PMC 9.90.040(6), which separately bars dropping litter, garbage, or refuse on property outside designated receptacles.