Growers say repeated trash dumping beside agricultural land can force them to leave portions of fields unharvested as a precaution.
YUMA, Ariz. — Illegal dumping beside agricultural fields in Yuma County is forcing produce workers to inspect growing areas for potential hazards and set aside land when necessary, raising fresh concerns in a region that supplies leafy greens and other vegetables to consumers across the country.
The problem has persisted despite a county campaign, law enforcement efforts and expanded waste-disposal options. Samuel Padilla, food safety manager for Pasquinelli Produce, said workers regularly encounter household trash, tree trimmings and sometimes trailer-sized loads left along fields. When material appears near crops, the farm must assess whether it could pose a physical, chemical or biological hazard. There is no indication that the recent dumping described by Padilla has contaminated produce that reached consumers.
Padilla said crews walk fields each morning looking for dumped material and other possible food-safety problems. If debris is found close enough to a growing area to create concern, workers can establish a buffer around the site that will not be harvested. He said those exclusion areas can extend 20 or 50 feet depending on the circumstances. The farm recently had to create buffers around five to 10 areas, although Padilla said those locations had not yet been planted and the dumped material was not hazardous.
The dumping often occurs on weekends, Padilla said. Signs posted around one affected area warn people not to trespass and tell visitors to follow food-safety rules, but he said the signs have not stopped the problem. Material found near fields has ranged from kitchen waste and landscaping debris to larger loads. Padilla told Arizona’s Family that one of the most troubling discoveries was a dead dog left near agricultural property.
The concern carries added weight because of Yuma’s role in the national food system. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said farms in the Yuma growing region provide the majority of leafy greens reaching U.S. consumers during the winter months. That means a serious contamination event can have consequences well beyond southwestern Arizona, affecting distributors, grocery stores and consumers across multiple states. Padilla said any suspected contamination can also trigger an investigation and lead to crop losses even before a public-health problem occurs.
Yuma’s produce industry has faced a major food-safety crisis before. In 2018, federal investigators linked a multistate E. coli O157:H7 outbreak to romaine lettuce from the Yuma growing region. The outbreak sickened 210 people in 36 states, hospitalized 96 and resulted in five deaths. An FDA environmental assessment later found the outbreak strain in water from three locations along a 3.5-mile section of an irrigation canal near Wellton. The agency concluded that water from the canal most likely led to contamination of the implicated romaine, although investigators could not determine exactly how the bacteria entered the canal.
The 2018 outbreak was not linked to illegal dumping, and authorities have not reported that the current dumping has caused an outbreak. The earlier case nevertheless illustrates why growers pay close attention to possible contamination around fields and water supplies. FDA investigators have identified agricultural water, soil amendments, animal intrusion and adjacent land use among the factors that can matter when evaluating contamination risks in produce-growing areas. Federal testing after the 2018 outbreak did not find evidence of widespread pathogenic E. coli or salmonella contamination in the Yuma romaine samples collected during that later sampling period.
Illegal dumping itself is a longstanding problem in the county. The Yuma County Sheriff’s Office investigated nearly 200 cases between 2020 and 2025, according to information provided to Arizona’s Family. Lt. Sonny Hixon said earlier this year that people frequently use isolated desert and agricultural areas to unload waste at night. The sheriff’s office has issued citations, and officials have said criminal penalties can vary depending on the amount of debris involved.
Yuma County and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality have tried to reduce the problem through the “Desert Strong, Yuma Clean” campaign. ADEQ awarded Yuma County $79,863.03 for a countywide education effort intended to discourage illegal dumping and increase use of county transfer sites. The campaign includes public outreach, cleanup events and advertising designed to direct waste toward legal disposal locations. State officials have said illegally dumped trash, tires, furniture, yard waste and commercial debris can threaten water supplies, crops, wildlife and people who work or recreate in affected areas.
The county also expanded access to legal disposal this year. In August, Yuma County opened its South Transfer Station southeast of Somerton, offering residents a free location for household solid waste. County waste officials said one goal of the facility is to reduce illegal dumping in areas where the problem has been especially persistent. The station is for residential use and does not accept commercial waste.
For growers, however, the continuing appearance of trash beside fields means inspections and precautionary buffers remain part of daily food-safety work. Authorities have not reported a current illness outbreak tied to the dumping, but Padilla said preventing hazards from reaching harvested crops is the priority. County officials and law enforcement continue their cleanup, education and enforcement efforts as the region moves through another produce season.
Author note: Last updated October 20, 2026.