A Pittsburgh councilperson says there's a trash crisis in the city and is seeking help from the state, starting a debate with some city leaders.

"It is deeply troubling that we are forced to live in such filthy and unsafe conditions," said Aimee Mangham with Hilltop Alliance. 

From Knoxville to Arlington and throughout Pittsburgh, people have had enough of the litter in their communities.

"We see it everywhere, and we are tired of it," said Debra Morgan with Arlington Civic Council. 

They say volunteer cleanups can only do so much.

"This is a systematic dumping by individuals, contractors, in some cases even enabled by years of neglect and lack of enforcement," said Mangham.

It's why on Tuesday morning, Councilperson Bob Charland proposed legislation urging the state to declare a disaster emergency due to what he calls "the uncontrollable amount of trash and dumping taking place" in the city.

"We know that our Public Works employees are working as hard as they can to get this city cleaned up. We also know that that's just not enough," Charland said. 

He says this type of assistance from the state would help get Pittsburgh the resources it needs to clean up the most impoverished neighborhoods on private and public land that aren't getting the same attention as places like Downtown. And he says studies show accumulation of trash and violence go hand in hand.

A lot of the trash, he claims, is a result of Public Works focusing on snow removal, potholes, community cleanups and bad actors dumping items illegally wherever they please without a consequence. Charland says he's talked to the mayor about these concerns.

"We have been pushing city resources, probably as much as we can here. Unfortunately, we're limited," Charland said. 

Public Works director Chris Hornstein agrees there's an issue with illegal dumping and he says the current system uses taxpayer dollars to clean someone else's mess. He also says they're doing more than ever to solve the litter problem.

"Last year, Public Works investigated over 7,500 complaints related to weeds, debris, illegal dumping on privately owned property," he said.

Hornstein says they then issued more than 5,000 actions related to these complaints, 600 leading to charges in court.

At the same time, he and Mayor Ed Gainey highlighted a new program that gives former prisoners an opportunity to get back on their feet, cleaning the communities. It starts in Homewood this weekend and was passed unanimously by council. In announcing the proposal, Charland said he wasn't aware of the program.

"If he would like for Knoxville to be added, we don't have no problem having Knoxville being added," Gainey said. 

"To go to the governor, trust me, the governor got more important things to do. We can handle this right here," he added. 

Charland's proposal passed council unanimously. They will be sending a letter to the governor, but they updated the language. They will no longer be asking for a state of emergency, and instead just for assistance with resources.

Charland previously introduced 'quality of life' legislation

Last year, Pittsburgh City Council passed legislation that made it possible for fines to be issued for violations like accumulating garbage, improperly storing trash outside of a tightly sealed can, setting containers out too early or bringing them in too late, and contaminating recycling.  

The legislation called for a $35 fine for one violation, $50 for a second within a calendar year, and $100 for a third violation.

Charland introduced the bill that was passed and at the time said that plans were in the works to bolster the amount of people able to enforce the violations.