A South Fulton church cemetery has been turned into a tire dumping ground, with dozens of rubber piles stacked several feet high among headstones and family plots. Congregants at Pleasant Hill Victory AME Church say they stumbled onto the mess earlier this week and still have no idea who did it. The small church fears the stacks, some sitting directly on graves, could damage stones and burial sites if they are not removed quickly.
As reported by WSB‑TV, Channel 2’s Michael Doudna visited the property on Friday and found tires wedged between and on top of headstones. Pastor Lola Russell told the station that one especially large mound sits above “four or five graves,” and members said the tires began appearing earlier in the week. The building on Stonewall Tell Road has served as a church site for nearly a century, congregants noted, and they see the cemetery as sacred ground and a piece of local history.
What the law says
Georgia law prohibits intentional dumping of large amounts of waste and labels big piles of material as “egregious litter,” a category that can bump charges from misdemeanors to felonies depending on the weight and contents. Penalties can include fines, court-ordered cleanup, restitution, and in the most serious cases fines up to $25,000 and prison time. Authorities may also impound vehicles connected to a dumping case, according to a summary of the statute from FindLaw.
A regional problem
Across metro Atlanta, officials have been battling similar tire piles, with counties forced into large and expensive cleanups. DeKalb County announced a $250,000 effort that officials say removed more than 37,000 illegally dumped tires from neighborhoods, wooded areas, and church properties, an operation detailed by FOX 5 Atlanta and in a DeKalb County press release. Local leaders say the cost and labor of removal often end up on taxpayers or small property owners when no one can pin down who did the dumping.
Church response and next steps
The Pleasant Hill Victory AME congregation has launched a GoFundMe to cover cleanup and restoration costs, according to WSB‑TV, which links to the fundraiser in its coverage. Church leaders told the station that if a responsible party is identified, that person could be ordered to pay for removal and could face fines or jail time. If no suspect is ever found, the bill will land on the small congregation. For now, members are lining up volunteers, collecting bids from cleanup crews, and pressing law enforcement for any leads.
Anyone with information about the dumping is asked to contact the South Fulton Police Department; local contact information is listed on the city’s police department page. Neighbors who noticed anything unusual earlier in the week are being urged to speak up so the tire piles can be cleared and families’ graves can be restored.
