Two weeks ago I posted on the approval of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and the looming ecological disaster brought on by the lack of cleanliness, personal hygiene, and general humanity of the DAPL protesters.

The current status of the DAPL campsite seems to resemble a cross between the set of a Mad Max movie (with snow) and your typical downscale Port-au-Prince suburb.

The protesters have largely evacuated but they have set the camp on fire

The governor of North Dakota isn’t all that amused:

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum says tons of garbage left behind by thousands of Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters has created an ecological disaster. Crews are scrambling to clean up the remnants of the protest camp near Cannonball, ND before the rotting debris is washed into nearby rivers.

In an interview on KFGO’s “News and Views,” Burgum compared living conditions at the camp to a landfill and a junkyard. “This is probably the biggest ecological mess on the entire Missouri River system from top to bottom in this country” Burgum said.

Burgum said there are also concerns about the possibility of finding bodies in the debris. “Peak population of this camp was in early December, and that’s when we had that huge, three-day blizzard. There were tents that were flattened at that time that have never been dug out again” according to Burgum. “Of course, if you were doing this in ideal conditions, the first thing you’d go in there is with cadaver dogs because the last thing you want to do is find that kind of a situation.”

So far, the protest has cost about $33 million for extra law enforcement. Burgum says the state could take legal action if it doesn’t get reimbursed. “If the state of North Dakota has to sue people, whether it’s agencies, federal government or others, we’re prepared to sue people. We want to make sure that the people responsible are the ones that pay.”

You have to seriously wonder about the people who were woofing about how a pipeline under a lake that already has about six pipelines under it would be an affront to their “sacred land,” and yet they go off and leave a huge stinking mess like this. A cynical person would think they had no more idea of their ancient “religion” than what they’ve read in a Louis L’Amour novel and are really in the protest business because there is a financial incentive.

I wish the governor good luck with his lawsuits. There isn’t $33 million of slack in North Dakota’s budget and the feds should be forced to pick up the tab because if Obama hadn’t let this protest take hold it would never have become the disaster that it is.