Grant funds will help teach San Juan County kids about littering

San Juan County officials have tried a variety of ways in the past to discourage residents from engaging in illegal dumping or littering, but they’ll add a new approach to the list this year after receiving a grant from the New Mexico Environment Department.

State officials announced in a Dec. 27 news release that the county was one of 13 entities around the state to receive a Recycling and Illegal Dumping (RAID) grant for the 2024 fiscal year. More than $750,000 will be split among the recipients, which include county and municipal governments, Native American pueblos and solid waste authorities around the state, according to the release.

San Juan County was awarded $15,000. County spokesman Devin Neeley said the money will be used to launch a “Make Us Shine” initiative in schools throughout the county. The county’s grant proposal was written and crafted by Nick Porell, the county’s public works director.

“It’ll pay for the design and printing of coloring books with an anti-littering and anti-illegal dumping message that we can give out to students in schools and at the county fair,” he said.

Neeley said he didn’t know when the coloring books would be circulated or how many of the books would be printed until the county had received a copy of the grant agreement from Environment Department officials.

But he did say county officials were pleased to receive the grant to help address what has become a longstanding issue.

“We’re excited to have this opportunity to get this information into schools because, unfortunately, illegal dumping has turned into a generational problem in the county,” he said.

The “Make Us Shine” initiative is viewed by county officials as a way to impress upon young people that illegal dumping is not an acceptable way to dispose of unwanted trash or household items, he said.

“We hope to have a cleaner future in San Juan County,” Neeley said.

This is at least the third RAID grant the county has received from the Environment Department over the past several years. Previous grants have been used for a billboard campaign discouraging illegal dumping and littering, for the hiring of interns to work on illegal dump site cleanups and on trailers used to haul away the trash collected at such sites.

Other recipients of RAID funding this year were the Pueblo of San Felipe, Bernalillo County, Roosevelt County, the town of Taos, the city of Clovis, the South Central Solid Waste Authority, Taos County, the village of Jemez Springs, the village of Roy, the village of Eagle Nest, the Pueblo of Pojoaque and the Estancia Valley Solid Waste Authority.

The RAID grant funding is generated through a special revenue fund derived from a fee on motor vehicle registrations, according to the release.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 ormeasterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.