Federal officials hauled away more than 800 dumpsters full of garbage at the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protest campsites situated on federally-owned land in North Dakota.
The Army Corps of Engineers completed its $1.1 million cleanup of the now vacant Sacred Stone campsite Thursday after sanitation crews hauled away 835 dumpsters full of trash left behind by people who opposed the pipeline, the Washington Times reported.
Army Corps Capt. Ryan Hignight said a total of 8,170 cubic yards was removed from the Sacred Stone, Oceti Sakowin, and Rosebud campsites.
“In total, there were 835 roll-off dumpsters of trash and debris removed from the three camps together,” Hignight said in an email to reporters Monday.
The Corps did not know the condition of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, where anti-DAPL activists have been staying.
They set aside some items, such as propane tanks and lumber, for recycling, the Associated Press reported.
A local animal shelter rescued six dogs, bringing the total number of dogs rescued at the sites to 12.
“We are happy to report that all animals have been accounted for throughout the Dakota Access Pipeline protest sites,” Furry Friends Rockin’ Rescue of Bismarck-Mandan said in a statement on its website. “The dogs will be vetted — vaccinated, examined, dewormed, and bathed — prior to being posted for adoption.”
Officials began cleaning up the areas in February to prepare for the ice melt, which increases the risk that the water from the melted ice will wash the debris into the nearby Missouri River.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) issued an emergency evacuation of the sites in February so the state could clean up the trash accumulated there.
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