Environmental activists (and several pretentious celebrities) protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock, North Dakota apparently left behind more than just good vibes when they vacated their campground.
The Washington Times reports a massive cleanup effort is underway to clear the campground of debris and trash left behind by the alleged environmentalists, who reportedly left heaps of abandoned sleeping bags, tents, trash bags, canned food and other general trash at the site. But here's the real irony: sanitation crews and volunteers have been tasked with cleaning up the area to keep all the junk from washing into the nearby Cannonball River -- the same river the protesters were all up in arms about in the first place.
From the Washington Times:
“Without proper remediation, debris, trash, and untreated waste will wash into the Cannonball River and Lake Oahe,” the Corps said in its statement.
Those involved in the clean-up effort, led by the Standing Rock Sioux, say it could take weeks for private sanitation companies and volunteers to clear the expanse of abandoned tents, teepees, sleeping bags, blankets, canned food, supplies and just plain garbage littering the Oceti Sakowin camp.
“It’s unfortunate. Again, that just goes against what they’re fighting against, is leaving that stuff and abandoning it and obviously the environment the river,” Scott Davis, North Dakota Commissioner for Indian Affairs, told KFYR-TV in Bismarck.
Local officials said they’re worried that winter snow and ice will turn into spring slush and create an even messier problem if they can’t get this giant human dump cleaned up in time. They've reportedly closed the site until Feb. 22 to allow enough time for cleanup.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen supposedly “green” protesters leave gobs of trash behind when they finally vacate their soapboxes. Hundreds of thousands of anti-Trump demonstrators who marched through Washington, D.C. two weeks ago as part of the “Women’s March” – many of whom were supposedly protesting Trump’s stance on “climate change” – left behind piles of abandoned signs, overflowing garbage bins and free-floating trash strewn throughout the streets of the nation’s capital.
Observe:
