Ohio - The Ohio Attorney General is working to clean up yards across the state. 

Ahead of Earth Day, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and his Environmental Enforcement team unveiled $1.1 million initiative to help communities statewide crack down on the polluters who use their backyard, or someone else's property as an enormous garbage can. 

"Shine a Light on Dumpers" is a multi-pronged campaign designed to expose illegal open dumping of solid wastes, including scrap tires, demolition debris and more, to eliminate this trash from Ohio neighborhoods. 

"We want local law enforcement, prosecutors and the public to know what they can do to combat the unsightly and unhealthy problem of dumping - and how my office can help them," Yost said. "It's time to reclaim our communities from these polluters."

Shine a Light on Dumpers will be rolled out in phases, beginning with new online resources focusing on awareness, legal guidance, training, and investigative assistance from the Attorney General's Office. 

The attorney general's Environmental Enforcement Section has two units that deal with environmental crimes statewide, BCI's Environmental Enforcement Unit and the Criminal Prosecution Unit. While the units often work cases referred to them by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency or the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, they also work directly with local law enforcement agencies and prosecutor's offices are available, upon request, to help investigate and prosecute cases of solid waste dumping. 

Another aspect of the initiative's first phase will kick off in July, when experts begin presenting monthly seminars across the state for police officers, sheriff deputies, sanitarians, code-enforcement officers and prosecutors. Attendees will learn how best to investigate incidents of open dumping and open burning of solid wastes as well as other environmental crimes, and receive the necessary legal framework for prosecuting such crimes.

Attorney General Yost has earmarked $1.1 million from the proceeds of a Volkswagen settlement for Shine a Light on Dumpers, with the bulk of the money going toward the second phase of the initiative.

Phase 2 will focus on supplying technical equipment to law enforcement agencies that are battling solid-waste dumping in their jurisdictions.