One woman's fight against illegal dumping in Lehigh Acres

LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. —

A woman in Lehigh Acres claims trash is turning her community into a dump.

"Who wants to look at it? Would you want to look at it? I mean it's sickening," said Corey Leon.

While the site is clear now, trash was piling up for days along 1600 Congress Avenue, leaving neighbors like Corey Leon fed up with the mess.

"It was all construction debris, construction debris. Now I've watched some other people try and come and dump over here and on another lot," said Leon.

The mess was bad enough, but she was more concerned about the safety risks and harm to nearby wildlife.

"It can get stuck in their feet. I mean, they could easily eat something and not know what it is. I mean, there's possums, rabbits, turtles," said Leon.

Leon says she contacted the Lee County Sheriff's Office and filed a report about the site on Congress Ave., hoping for action against those responsible for the dumping.

However, after Gulf Coast News reached out to the county on Wednesday, Lee County Solid Waste cleaned up the apparent illegal dump site Thursday morning, because the debris was primarily in the right of way.

Illegal dumping continues to be a consistent challenge in Lee County. In just a single day of investigating and driving around, Gulf Coast News also found a few trash dumps across Lehigh Acres.

On the Lee County Solid Waste's website, a heat map shows the areas across Lee County with the highest concentrations of illegal dumping activity. In 2025, you can see Lehigh Acres had the most.

"Because no one ever comes out here and looks, and there's a lot of places to dump," said Leon.

According to the Lee County Sheriff's Office, the consequences for illegal dumping depend on the amount and type of trash involved.

Unincorporated Lee County residents can report illegal dumping and/or Code Enforcement issues from one user-friendly landing page.

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