| Tons of Trash Being Dumped at Local Homeless Camps Redway Resident Works on Cleanup of Litter Infesting Creeks, Eel River by Cristina Bauss Feburary 13, 2007 Article courtesy of The Independent Right by the turnoff to Alderpoint Road there’s a patch of dirt, next to the Bear Canyon Bridge, just large enough for a few cars to park in. A short, steep trail leads under the bridge, one of several places in Southern Humboldt where the homeless and transients camp. On Friday afternoon, Feb. 9, the trail is slick and treacherous. "Hello?" Redway resident John Casali calls out before venturing underneath. He turns and cautions: “You really don’t want to deal with someone who’s on meth, or drunk.” No one is under the bridge, although a couple of sleeping bags and some bundled-up sheets indicate that someone will be returning fairly soon. From the edge of this spot, one can peer about 150 feet down a sheer embankment to the creek, which at this time of year is running fast towards the river. It would be a beautiful sight – if not for the fact that, all the way down, garbage of almost every conceivable sort litters the earth and hangs from the brush. It will eventually be washed into the creek, then into the river. The flat areas have been cleared of litter, but the embankment is far too steep and dangerous for anyone to negotiate without rappelling equipment. According to a list compiled by Casali, who has cleaned up several sites with the help of some local homeless, the items collected include the following: household garbage; oil cans; hypodermic needles; soiled disposable diapers; human feces (enough to fill a 33-gallon container); Styrofoam containers; plastic of all sorts; food wrappers; drug paraphernalia; cigarette butts and packs; glass beer and liquor bottles; clothing soiled with urine and feces; old Christmas trees; foam pads; paper; paint; solvents; car parts; and used tampons and sanitary napkins. “I am so outraged,” Casali says. “It’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.” As he explains how he came to learn of the problem, a young man joins us under the bridge. Casali introduces him as Peace, one of the local homeless. He and his wife Giggles have been collecting trash with Casali. “We cleaned up around here for two weeks,” Peace says, indicating the area around the bridge’s underside.“We took 26 bags and two tarps full of garbage out.” Although homeless, Peace is employed at the Humboldt House Inn. He is polite, well spoken, and clearly irate about the situation. Eight months ago, Casali was thrilled when he purchased a riverfront property, blissfully unaware of the nightmare that would soon engulf him. He has experience with rehabilitating real estate: he has purchased and cleaned up two local ranch properties that had been converted into methamphetamine labs. He did not expect to encounter a similar situation in Redway. However, after the first good rain of the season, he noticed trash on the riverbank – trash that had clearly been washed down. Investigating its source was easily done; when he found it, he was stunned, incensed, and heartbroken. “I didn’t know about this,” he said. “I bet 90 percent of the people in Southern Humboldt have no idea.” The source was up the river, where – behind Caltrans, PG&E and Renner – a swath of riverfront serves as another popular campout spot. Minute pieces of debris litter the ground; the bulk of the trash has already been picked up. Casali points to an idyllic, large flat right on the river, and says that it was entirely covered in garbage: “We’ve cleared out about 4,500 pounds from down here, and the county cleared out another 4,000 from up above earlier in the season.” That’s more than four tons of garbage that, without intervention, would have gone straight into the Eel River. Peace finds us again, having correctly guessed that it would be the next stop of the afternoon. Giggles trails close behind; after an introduction, she asks if I’ve been shown the tree that has no grass around it. She leads me to a majestic specimen surrounded by a giant ring of bare earth, sharply noticeable in an oasis of green. “There was a solid pile of garbage all the way around it,”she explains. “We collected 11 huge bags just from this spot. Over there,” she says, pointing to a spot a few feet away, “I found potatoes rooting in the ground.” Above the riverbank, thick brush serves as perfect cover from both the elements and other people. Giggles points towards a speck of bright orange: “You see that? That’s a garbage bag. That’s someone that we know will take his trash out.” A Katrina refugee who now calls Garberville home, she becomes emotional: “We understand the homeless plight,” she continues. “We’re homeless. But we don’t understand the garbage. We don’t like seeing Mother Nature being treated like this… and people in Redway get their water from this river.” Casali recently provided the Redway Community Services District with photographs documenting the problem, and concerned board members are slated to make a presentation to the Rotary Club. He has also contacted several government agencies, but has been stymied at every turn: the Regional Water Quality Control Board in Santa Rosa informed him that the camps were a law-enforcement issue; a Dept. of Fish & Game warden told him he would have to catch someone in the act of dumping in order to make an arrest; and according to Casali, the Health Dept. instructed him not to touch the garbage because of high health risks. He did so anyway, because after the initial cleanup, officials didn’t return to Southern Humboldt before the rains hit. Local law-enforcement agencies are understaffed and overwhelmed. Both the Garberville Sheriff’s Substation and the California Highway Patrol cover enormous areas, and a single Fish & Game warden is responsible for virtually all of Southern Humboldt. Casali has taken to informing business owners and other residents he meets of the problem, and with his sister, is working on a petition to distribute locally. Meanwhile, he has invested his own dollars into the effort: he has paid people to conduct cleanup, and upon request, produces a receipt for $69.00 paid towards dumping 900 lbs. of garbage – including a 220-lb. television. While most of the garbage that has been hauled away is clearly from transients, not all of it is. The presence of ordinary household garbage, Christmas trees, appliances and other such items indicates that some Southern Humboldt residents are also carelessly disposing of their refuse – not only in Redway and Garberville, but other locations as well, including Dean Creek and near Sylvandale Gardens. From a spot near the latter, a sofa, a stove, and a microwave oven were removed; a number of mattresses have been dumped in several locations as well. Casali, Peace, and Giggles also said they have witnessed carloads of young people coming out to certain areas at night “just to party, and they throw junk around with no regard for anything – for the animals, for the people, for the land.” As for the homeless, Casali is very sensitive to their predicament, and to the initial impression that some people might get from his campaign. “You find out who the good people are real quick,” he says. “Those kids” – indicating Peace and Giggles – “they have been lifesavers. And a lot of the local homeless have told me that they hate the camps, precisely because of this... If this is how we treat the environment, the earth, and each other, we have no moral fiber left.” Later on Friday, Peace and Giggles have made their way to Garberville, where they are seen on the street, approaching a group of young people with backpacks. “Are you camping out here tonight?” they ask. “Yeah,” comes the weary response from a couple of them. “Make sure you don’t trash the place, okay? Whatever you take in with you, take it back out. Don’t leave any trash behind.” |