Antelope Valley residents waging battle against massive illegal dumping

On a blustery blue morning in early June, Beth Worrell scampered up a 10-foot-tall, woodchip-covered berm that juts for more than a quarter-mile from the dusty Mojave Desert floor just inside the Kern County line near unincorporated Neenach.

Worrell paused briefly at the top of the giant mound and then disappeared down the other side. A few minutes later, she reemerged, clutching a handful of unlikely treasures.

“I’m making a collage for Kristina,” Worrell said wryly as she placed a plastic baby bottle, a metal rod, a rusty pair of pliers, and a used syringe in the dirt with her bare hands.

Worrell’s friends, Kristina Brown of Fairmont and Ashley Mroz of Neenach, are engaged in a “David vs. Goliath” legal battle against some titans of Southern California’s waste management industry over