Samuel Padilla, food safety manager for Pasquinelli Produce, said people dump items ranging from kitchen waste and tree trimmings to entire trailer loads along field edges. Signs posted near one site, including a warning to follow food-safety rules, have not stopped the dumping, he said. Incidents often happen on weekends.

Farm crews walk fields each morning to look for debris. If waste or another potential hazard is found near romaine lettuce, the farm conducts a risk assessment and may establish a buffer zone of 20 to 50 feet, Padilla said. Crops inside a buffer cannot be harvested.

The farm recently had to mark off five to 10 areas, Padilla said. None of those areas had been planted, and the dumped material was not hazardous, so the incidents did not result in crop loss. But he warned that hazardous material could create a broader public-health concern if it contaminated produce.

Yuma ships lettuce and other vegetables across the country. A physical, chemical or biological hazard that reached consumers could make people sick and trigger an investigation, Padilla said.

Padilla said the worst discovery near a field was a dead dog. County officials and law enforcement have increased efforts to address illegal dumping this year, but the problem continues.

The Yuma County Sheriff’s Office investigated nearly 200 illegal-dumping cases from 2020 through 2025 and has issued citations, the office said.