A number of dump trucks and heavy machinery were seen at the protest camp near the site of the Dakota Access Pipeline on Monday. These vehicles cleared a large amount of garbage that has accumulated. Protesters came together for months against plans to route the $3.8 billion pipeline beneath Lake Oahe near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, saying it threatened water resources and sacred Native American sites.
The cleanup comes after months of protests against the 1,172-mile crude oil pipeline over fears that a leak where it crosses the Missouri River would contaminate the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation’s water supply. A few hundred remaining protesters have agreed to clean up and leave the Oceti Sakowin camp, situated within a floodplain on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land, for safety reasons before potential spring floods come.
The clean-up also marked cooperation among authorities and camp organisers. The decision to clean the site, where a few hundred protesters remain, was made on Sunday by state and local officials and members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. There are dozens of abandoned cars and structures as well as waste at the camp.
“I’m not going to run people’s camps over. I’m not going to take anyone’s property or do anything like that,” Hans Youngbird Bradley, a construction contractor from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe said during the meeting.
“It is paramount for public safety, and to prevent an environmental disaster, that the camps be cleared prior to a potential spring flood,” said North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, a Republican who supports the completion of the pipeline, in a statement.
Land is being leased on the Standing Rock Reservation for protesters who wish to remain in the area.
