Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumblePark Service overwhelmed with Lake Mead litter
Courtesy Martin Dean Dupalo
Losa Lee, left, and Ji Young Lee throw away trash they picked up from the shore of Lake Mead cove during a trip last fall.
Monday, Feb. 9, 2009 | 2:29 p.m.
Last fall, Martin Dean Dupalo and a couple friends launched their small boat for a pleasant day in a Lake Mead cove, but they could hardly believe their eyes as they approached the shore to dock.
Beer cans, a tire, dead fish, shoes and deflated rafts scattered the rocks like they were seashells.
Not ones to mope about a beach wasted, the crew loaded as much waste as would fit in the boat's bow and scooted back to the marina to dump it where it belonged, in trash and recycling bins.
Dupalo, who teaches at UNLV, was disappointed by the trash and the visitors who left it.
"It was more than an eyesore. It was a million sad and negative thoughts in moments," he said.
The Lake Mead National Recreation Center sees 7.4 million visitors a year and the Park Service is having trouble keeping up with the trash those visitors leave, spokesman Andrew Muñoz said.
Despite providing free trash bags and bins and reminding visitors to leave the lake with everything they brought in, the Park Service finds the waste piles up every day, Muñoz said.
The Park Service will resume an agreement later this month for men from Three Lakes Valley Conservation Camp, a state prison in Indian Springs, to clean up Boulder Basin once a week.
The crews had cleaned the recreational area four days a week until last summer, when the Park Service canceled the service .
In September, October and November, crews picked up trash once a week, but stopped for December and January, Muñoz said.
The inmates provide help to the basin's small maintenance crew, which has more responsibilities than just picking up after visitors.
The program with the state Division of Forestry costs the Park Service about $1,000 each day prisoners come, Muñoz said, which is overwhelming the budget for the cleanups.
The Park Service is negotiating a contract that would lessen the cost, he said, but couldn't provide details.
In addition, the Park Service will soon sponsor an "Adopt-A-Cove" program that would provide a Park Service boat and guide to take groups out to clean up coves for the day, Muñoz said.
Dupalo said he hopes the cove cleanups make a difference, and he hopes park-goers will learn to be more responsible for respecting the lake and its lands.
"Ultimately, it's not the professional National Park Service or our menial deeds that will make the difference," he said. "It's unfortunately those that continue to pollute that will determine if, as the 1970s campaign read, we all 'Keep America Beautiful.'"
For more information about that future project or about scheduling a trash pickup, contact Nancy Bernard at 293-8714.
Cassie Tomlin can be reached at 948-2073 or cassie.tomlin@hbcpub.com.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- At UNLV basketball games, they call him Tiny, and that big kid can dance
- Rise and fall of the Charity Queen: How Kathleen Vermillion gained fame
- Celebrity preview: JWoww, Sean Kingston, Ice-T and Coco, Nelly
- Sandoval’s $400,000 credit card payment reveals campaign finance flaw
- Henderson mayor ‘regrets’ police-inflicted pain suffered by diabetic after traffic stop
- Star Surveillance: Vince Neil turns 51, Criss Angel, Angel Porrino, ‘Stripped’
- Critics call foreclosure settlement ‘a slap in face’
- Judge sets hearing for teacher in DUI-related accident
- Creativity, strong support system make for thriving city
- An early-state problem; and teachers union doesn’t relent
Blogs
The Kats Report
South Point owner Michael Gaughan's take on 'Vegas Stripped' TV show: "I'll give it an 8'
Author relishes writing the life story of ‘larger-than-life’ Oscar Goodman (1 Comment)
Elsewhere
Landowner: All roads could lead to Uxbridge casino
Revel reveals smoke-free casino opening
Cirque du Soleil show in Sands China casino to close this month
Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson
The Kats Report
A sophisticated look at line-moving and dog-show handicapping from Wynn's Johnny Avello
Calendar »
- 10 Fri
- 11 Sat
- 12 Sun
- 13 Mon
- 14 Tue
-
Styx
Green Valley Ranch Grand Event Center | 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.
-
Bob Zany
The Improv Comedy Club at Harrah's
-
Henderson Symphony Orchestra
Henderson Convention Center | 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
-
Gerardo Ortiz
LVH - Las Vegas Hotel | 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.
-
Mötley Crüe
The Joint
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
The Mexicans! Every time I go to the lake I see family's of 'Em throwing trash everywhere. They dont clean up after they camp. I have never been to the lake and not witnessed them throwing trash on the ground. It has got to be some kind of Mexican custom or something.
"It has got to be some kind of Mexican custom or something."
Maybe it's because you treat them like trash?
johnevegas: go to government wash this weekend and you will see what I see every week.
I also witness families that hang out there, when it's time for them to go, they just get in their car and leave, leaving all of their dirty diapers and garbage behind.
It's disgusting, park rangers should start ticketing these people.
"go to government wash this weekend and you will see..."
I believe you. But I was serious. Maybe it's because we treat them like trash. Chicken and Egg, you know? Maybe not. I'm just saying.
Who treats them like trash? I have never seen anyone being rude to them at all. When they pack up to go home they leave all the trash on the ground and clean all the trash from there cars out as well. I was wondering weather it was a custom of ritual they had.
It is not a secret that families from south of the border leave a mess everywhere at Lake Mead. This has been going on for years. Go up to Mt. Charleston and see all the dirty diapers they leave everywhere. I wish they would all leave.
"Who treats them like trash?"
Here you go...
"It is not a secret that families from south of the border leave a mess everywhere at Lake Mead.....I wish they would all leave."
Not a secret? It's news to me.
All leave? What if home is Las Vegas?
What if they are born and raised Las Vegans who happen to be slobs because they are just like the rest of the people who live here?
They come from a culture very different than us, doesn't explain the problem only highlights it. Mt. Charleston has the exact same problem.
Remember they come from a place where toilet paper goes in the waste can next to, instead of in, the toilet.
Mt. Charleston has posted many signs in spanish telling people to pick up their trash.
johnevegas: its apparent you never go to the lake or this would not be news to you. So maybe if you dont know anything about the problem its best to not comment. You have no idea how huge a problem this is. Hundreds of campers not picking up after themselves.
getalife: I think signs in Spanish are whats needed. The problem is will any of them read the signs. Maybe some undercover Rangers need to show up an write tickets. They will run into the same thing that Metro does no ID.
"Hundreds of campers not picking up after themselves."
All Mexicans?
And thanks for the advice on when I should comment or not. I'm very sorry if I insulted your sense of worthwhile conversation with my suggestion that their might be some racial profiling going on.
Clearly you know better than I, and this must be one of those cases where racial prejudice just happens to fit the circumstances perfectly, though not correctly. My bad.
By the way, I grew up in East L.A. and all my neighbors were Mexican. Spent my childhood at Legg Lake every weekend. Never saw a hint of what you are talking about, though there were hundreds of Mexicans. In all fairness though, no gangs either. Maybe things have changed.
Ooops, there I go offering useless uninformed comments again. Sorry, I'll shut up now.
I actually think it's the entitlement mentality that's running wild in America. Why should I pick up after myself, won't someone else?
I fish at Sunset park on occasion and even though trash cans are provided, people still just walk away from trash.
Undercover Rangers are not the answer due to budget constraints.
Sorry my liberal friends, but in general, Mexicans (People from Mexico) who have immigrated legally or illegally do not have a concept of litter and throw trash everywhere. Trash is a HUGE environmental problem in Mexico with mounds and mounds of it everywhere, you can read multiple stories on this on the web. Apparently, culturally, they just do not have the proscription against it as we do. Listen, it took us years of heavy info-propaganda to cahnge out own country (Starting in the 70's) and Mexico hasn't gotten there yet.
Start just telling Mexican families when you see them littering that it is illegal and they will stop because they don't want any trouble. They just plain don't seem to know any better!