The City of Campbell River is looking into two "brazen" cases of illegal dumping from over the weekend, a concerning trend that brings the total number of cases from 2019 up to at least three-dozen.

The city's General Manager of Assets and Operations, Dave Morris, says, "We've had 35 reported cases of illegal dumping this year. We do investigate them and there is the opportunity of levying a $500 fine if we find out and establish who did the dumping".

One of the cases involved furniture and other personal belongings being dumped on an empty lot for sale in the Jubilee and South Dogwood area, in a subdivision currently under development.

The president of Premier Homes, Neil Chapman, says he was notified of the problem early Monday morning.

"I actually got a text from a tradesman who works for me that was working on another house down the street," said Chapman.

"He sent me a picture and said 'Happy Monday, somebody did this to you.'"

It was the first time Chapman has experienced dumping beyond the usual issue of people throwing random items into his dumpsters. In this instance, the items were left on the lot right beside an oversized, nearly-empty dumpster.

"Too lazy to throw it in the dumpster," Chapman said.

"I guess it was just a convenient stop on their way out of town. It's a new area and I think there's only one house occupied in the area at the moment so it was a quick in and quick out and I guess my lot was the easy one to dump on today".

The belongings were traced back to a woman who left the community back in February and who has since been contacted by RCMP and a lawyer after hearing about where the belongings surfaced.

Meanwhile, a second highly visible location of dumping was found recently at the corner of York and Deerfield Roads, south of the city.

An assortment of pipes, tree stumps and garage-type items appeared on the weekend. It's a collection the founder of a garbage cleanup group, Stop Comox/Strathcona Illegal Dumping, says fits a disturbing pattern.

"The latest seems to be somebody in a large truck has been dumping stumps and household goods and that along some of the more deserted roads," said founder Jamie Barth.

Barth says the York Road dumping is similar in nature to ones discovered on Duncan Bay Main Line Road and Cranberry Lane.

"As a group, we're starting to see more urban dumping rather than rural dumping," Barth said. He believes that's due in part to the fact that timber companies have been closing down access to some of the more 'traditional dumpsites' where people have been illegally dumping. 

Barth says some 'fly-by-night' companies have been taking customers' money for item removal, including disposal fees, and then abandoning items rather than paying to take them to the landfill.

He says one way to help cut down on the problem is to have homeowners insist on seeing receipts from contractors that verify items have actually gone to the landfill before paying for their dumping fee.