DONNA – Metal debris along the roads of one Rio Grande Valley city is causing costly problems for motorists.

Marcus Gonzalez driving down a Donna road is leaving him with expensive car repairs. “The past year I’ve had maybe three or four flats and my wife had one also, that’s a little much,” he said.

Gonzalez believes the debris falls from trucks delivering metal scraps to a local recycling company.

“They pull out these little slivers. They’re not nails, they’re not screws, and they’re not anything. They’re basically just scrap metal,” he said.

Gonzalez said the metal debris is creating an inconvenience.

“The last when I had… I didn’t even realize it was flat until the morning, when I had to go drop of my kids off at school,” he said.

Gonzalez’s neighbors said they face the same issues. They said its money they shouldn’t have to spend.

Donna Economic Development Executive Director, Lyle Garza, said the business is responsible for the cleanup.

“There are street sweepers that will go by on a regular schedule. That is typically not handled by the city. It is the property owner, the business owner that has to clean up his own area especially if we know the problem is coming from them,” he said.

Garza said people should contact the Donna Planning Department to voice a complaint.

“We have our code enforcement. If there was an issue going on with a particular business, and if we note that it is being handled by a scrap metal iron business and is clearly causing the problems, then we would sit down and we would issue either a memo on a citation and we would have them clear that debris right away,” he said.

Until then, Gonzalez said he will be cautious when driving down the road.