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Several Months of ‘Human Waste’ an Urgent Motive to Move Dakota Access Protesters This Week

By Tws Staff

Small-scale demonstrations continued at the Dakota Access Pipeline protest camp in Cannon Ball, N.D., on Monday, with holdouts facing a Wednesday deadline to vacate the area and allow the Army Corps of Engineers to help expedite cleanup of what North Dakota’s governor called “five or six months of human waste [and] debris.”

Gov. Doug Burgum said the trash was becoming an urgent environmental threat as temperatures rise and the land thaws. The accompanying possibility of flooding could carry the garbage into nearby waterways.

As the Associated Press reports, some of the protestors in Cannon Ball aren’t necessarily convinced:

Many in camp think authorities are exaggerating the flood threat and trying to turn public sentiment against them. “They’re talking like it will be a flood that will wipe out all of existence,” said Luke Black Elk, a Cheyenne River Sioux from South Dakota. Some flooding is likely, he said, but “most of it won’t be that bad.” The camp has been the site of numerous and sometimes violent clashes between police and protesters who call themselves “water protectors,” with more than 700 arrests. The camp’s population has dwindled as the pipeline battle has largely moved into the courts. Protesters who remain say they’re prepared to be arrested, but will remain peaceful.

Burgum signed an emergency evacuation order last week supporting a Feb. 22 federal cutoff to have the camp vacated. John Bigelow, the camp’s media director, told ABC News that “most folks” were in the process of leaving the site, either for another camp or their homes. That was Thursday. Some remained on Monday.

Charlotte Allen has more on the camp’s own environmental troubles here.

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