WILLIAMSBURG, Ky. — The nation's top environmental regulator on Friday tackled an unsightly environmental problem — illegal garbage dumps that blight Kentucky's Appalachian region.

        Christine Whitman went briefly into one such dump in Whitley County to pick up trash, collecting a tire and some plastic cups before being whisked away to see other portions of the region where trash has piled up over the years.

        Ms. Whitman said she was impressed with efforts to clean up trash in Kentucky and will use an initiative started in southeastern Kentucky as a model to encourage similar projects nationwide.

        “It's a good example of what people can do when they band together in partnership,” said Ms. Whitman, administrator of the Environ mental Protection Agency.

        Ms. Whitman worked alongside high school and middle school students from Williamsburg for about five minutes, pulling garbage from an illegal dump on the edge of the Cumberland River before boarding a helicop ter for the rest of her tour through southeastern Kentucky. Residents of many counties in the region aren't required to have their garbage disposed of in a legal dump.

        “Obviously, you see the results of that,” Ms. Whitman said after climbing out of the illegal dump on George Hays Road in Williamsburg.

        Ms. Whitman, a former New Jersey governor, was silent on the matter of mandatory garbage collection for all Kentucky residents, an issue that failed in the General Assembly this year. “I think that's a decision of the governor and local leaders,” she said.

        At the invitation of U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, a Republican from Somerset, Ms. Whitman was making a two-day visit to Kentucky for a firsthand look at PRIDE, a regional initiative to remove garbage from the state's scenic Appalachian region.

        PRIDE — Personal Responsibility In a Desirable Environment — is a 4-year-old environmental cleanup program serving 40 counties in southern and eastern Kentucky. The program has involved 31,000 volunteers to help clean up.

        Educating children on the need to clean up illegal trash dumps is a key component of the program, Mr. Rogers said. He said cleaning up the region's trash would be useless if people aren't taught not to continue using illegal dumps.

        Mr. Rogers said volunteers who have taken part in PRIDE have collected 68,000 bags of trash and 40,000 refrigerators, washing machines and other appliances that had been discarded.

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