When Chris Weppner starts his shift at the Garwood dump site, the first thing he checks is the employee log for notes of problem customers.

He's already on the watch for it, folks who become aggressive over dump site rules.

Usually it's just verbal abuse, he said, cuss words and back talk. But occasionally, people really fly off the handle.

"The best way to define it is they make it difficult for us to do our job, and it's not an easy job to do," Weppner said on Wednesday as cars lined up to dump their garbage. "And it's only over garbage."

Dump site detail is a tough gig.

Incidents of illegal dumping and verbal abuse to staff are on the rise at Kootenai County's 14 rural dump sites, especially the three that are manned daily, said Roger Saterfiel, Solid Waste director.

And there's little anyone can do, he said.

"You would just be blown away by how ballistic some of them will be," Saterfiel said. "In the past, you always have had people who get mad about anything, but often most people were just grateful we were out there, keeping an eye on things."

There is a single staff member seven days a week at the Garwood, Twin Lakes and Athol dump sites. Employees man the other sites sporadically, when Solid Waste can spare the manpower.

The duties are simple: To ensure folks aren't dumping items like large appliances, weapons or chemicals, which pose environmental threats and cost more tax dollars to transport to the transfer stations.

Staff also turns away dumpers who aren't county property owners, and not paying for the service.

"The first month we staffed (rural sites), we had 250 tons less waste go to those sites, because they were coming from Bonner County and Spokane illegally," Saterfiel said.

The problem is, every kind of person has trash to dispose of.

That includes tantrum-throwers, fight-pickers, bullies and your run-of-the-mill crazies.

Usually folks are set off when asked for proof of residency, Saterfiel said. Or when employees inform them that a large or hazardous item must be taken to a transfer station.

"It's just nasty. Really nasty," Saterfiel said of what folks will reply.

Some threaten fisticuffs, or that they'll get the employee fired.

Others let loose a torrent of obscenities.

"For the most part, they just tell my employees they're dumping anyway," Saterfiel said.

Some materials have been dangerous. Like a few months back, when an individual ignored the staff member's directions at the Garwood site and dumped a load of metal, which included three World War II mortar shells.

"What happens there, we have to close the site and call law enforcement," Saterfiel said.

Another Garwood dumper, peeved at the news that he couldn't drop off full cans of paint, removed the lids and poured the paint on the ground.

"That goes into the aquifer, the water he drinks, so he really showed us," Saterfiel said.

Only once has a user gotten physical - last year, when an individual at the Garwood site refused to show proof of residence and attacked a staff member, putting him in the hospital.

That's why Saterfiel tells his employees to just back off when folks gets feisty.

"My employees are instructed, 'It's only garbage, it's not worth a confrontation,'" he said.

Maj. Dan Mattos with the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department said the agency doesn't have the manpower to regularly patrol the rural sites.

Officers aren't responsible for enforcing what items are dumped, he added, but he encouraged personnel to call in if a visitor gets out of hand.

"If somebody's yelling or screaming or interfering with business or using profanities, the sheriff can be called," Mattos said.

Illegal dumping happens every week, Saterfiel said. Verbal abuse, every day.

Staff will scribble down a violator's license plate number, but there's no fine for illegal dumping, or for being a jerk.

Just a phone call or a letter.

"That really doesn't do a lot of good," Saterfiel acknowledged.

The best solution he sees is to ask users to respect the old Kindergarten mantra: Follow the rules, and be nice, please.

"Just try to understand that before you get mad, that employee is just doing their job," Saterfiel said. "We don't have those rules out there to try to make people's lives inconvenient."