SAN ANTONIO – Shattered glass and stacks of trash were the reality a West Side neighborhood called Villas de Esperanza woke up to one morning this summer.
“It was just shocking,” Tricia, their neighborhood association president, said. “We’ve had this ongoing issue of dumping all the time right here.”
Tricia shared photos with KSAT showing trash dumped as big as tires and as small as medical vials.
“It’s just unbelievable and unacceptable,” she said. “‘Is something going to come to our water? Is it going to go to the ground?’ It’s just pure anger.”
The location off Frio City Road has since been cleaned, but it’s just one of hundreds in San Antonio.
The City of San Antonio said it is a victim of illegal dumping.
“It’s downright ugly and disrespectful for the city and the people who live in our city,” City of San Antonio Solid Waste Management Department assistant director Andrew Gutierrez said.
While crews with the department sweep streets, Gutierrez said they’re also pushing surveillance and education to stop this crime.
As a new city budget cycle looms, he said the community has been clear about wanting more cleanups.
“It’s really hard to catch these folks,” Gutierrez said. He said the community is ”asking us to do more and then we want to do more.”
It’s still unclear where the trash in Tricia’s neighborhood came from. KSAT reached out to University Health due to its branding on some of the posters in Tricia’s photos.
A University Health spokesperson said by the time they were told about the site a few weeks ago, all the debris was cleaned up and weren’t able to confirm if those items came from their hospital.
KSAT produced an episode of KSAT Explains that looked into what happens to the junk after city crews collect it. The episode can be seen here.