Someone illegally dumped between 400 and

one-thousand gallons of refined fat into a gully near Blix

Elementary School in Tacoma, leaving taxpayers with a cleanup bill

of up to 200-thousand dollars.

City workers discovered the smelly

piles of fat on Thursday. Officials are trying to track down the

source of the processed fat, which is also known as tallow. A

private environmental services company was called in to clean up

the mess.

Ecology Department spokeswoman Sandy Howard says the

spill is the latest example of what appears to be a growing problem

of midnight dumping incidents. For example, Mason County

prosecutors brought felony charges yesterday against a Shelton man

who allegedly dumped nearly 366-thousand gallons of sewage and

sewage sludge into a creek that drains into Oakland Bay. His arrest

prompted state Health Department officials to shut down

shellfish-growing operations in the bay, which is part of Puget

Sound.