DUANESBURG — Norman Torres was unaware he was moving in across the road from a dump.

Four months ago, the 50-year-old disabled veteran purchased a $250,000 farm along a rural stretch of Mariaville Scotch Church Road. To his surprise, he found he was neighbor to a landfill fed by a steady procession of trucks hauling refuse into a vacant lot opposite his home.

“This guy is hauling stuff in and out of that place,” said Torres, as he flipped through some of the more than 200 pictures he’s taken of the refuse-choked land since the spring. “It’s like a living nightmare.”

From street level, the five-acre Dawson property seems normal. But area residents contend the land is brimming with junked vehicles, construction debris and old tires. Town and state officials agree.

Torres said he first learned of the dump one day when he was nearly struck by a piece of automotive equipment that fell from a truck pulling out of the property. When he walked up the winding gravel drive to confront the owner, he discovered an endless maze of junk splayed in nearly every direction — everything from large fuel drums to bags of household garbage to what he believed to be asbestos-covered pipes.

“He’s got everything up there,” he said. “And he’s burying it too.”

Both the town’s code enforcer and officials from the state Department of Environmental Conservation are acutely aware of the problem. Since 2004, they have engaged in a lengthy enforcement effort on the property, which is now being slowly cleaned.

Town Code Enforcer Dale Warner said the owner of the land — listed as Sidney Dawson — has until mid-September to clear the lot. He said the town and DEC have made regular visits to the property ever since the issue resurfaced earlier this year.

“It’s been kind of an ongoing problem,” he said.

Some neighbors claim the property has been an issue for nearly two decades, when the former piece of farmland was acquired by the Dawsons. Dave Hamil owns farmland abutting the site and says he has contended with junk that has spilled over onto his property over the years.

But while the property is technically owned by Dawson, Hamil claims it’s Dawson’s son who is doing the dumping. He’s watched trucks with out-of-state license plates haul loads of junk onto the land under the cover of night and he’s listened to the sound of excavating equipment he suspects of burying the debris.

“It’s not right,” he said. “He’s making my acreage worth nothing.”

There is no listed number for Sidney Dawson in the Capital Region. State and town officials only have a post office box address for Dawson in the Glenville hamlet of Alplaus.

Warner said there are no legal junkyards operating in Duanesburg and opening one would require a special zoning variance through the town. Violators of the town’s junk ordinance can face either a $1,000 fine, 90 days in jail or both.

DEC officials have cited the property on two occasions. DEC spokesman Rick Georgeson said Dawson was assessed and paid a $1,000 fine for operating a solid waste facility without a permit in 2004.

Georgeson said state enforcers returned to the property in 2006 and assessed a $1,500 fine in 2007. On both occasions, they discovered materials that were inappropriately disposed of, including large piles of metal, fiberglass, adulterated wood and tar shingles.

Georgson said the next step is to criminally prosecute the owner of the property if the dumping continues. He said further dumping could bring much stiffer penalties because of the now-lengthy record of enforcement.

“Because they’re intentionally breaking the law, instead of not knowing the law,” he said.

Warner said there has been a considerable effort to clean the land this summer. He said the owner has reduced the number of junked vehicles from 41 down to less than a dozen.

“He’s gotten a considerable amount taken out of there,” he said.

For Torres and other area residents, the cleanup can’t happen quick enough. Torres said runoff from the property has an oily sheen, which he fears might one day contaminate his drinking water well.

“It was a mistake that I went up there, because it’s really bothering me now,” he said.