San Angelo's Lakeshores Littered From Fourth of July Revelry

 

Heaps of garbage and carelessly discarded refuse littered the sandy and grassy areas of Lake Nasworthy on Sunday morning, remnants of hundreds of fourth of July revelers, who left the lake in a state of complete waste not far from resembling a landfill.

Plastic bits of flotation devices, beer cans, glass bottles, cartons from booze and pizza boxes and the carcasses of spent fireworks shells lay strewn about Mary E. Lee Beach and The Horseshoe, cast aside apart from somewhat organized heaps stacked next to overflowing trash bins.

Two workers for the city showed up at approximately 7:30 a.m. to start cleaning up the parks, beginning with the mounds of trash strewn about Mary E. Lee Beach.

“It’ll take us till—here, a couple of hours and then we still have to jump over to the other park, but here is going to take us at least four or five hours,” one of them said, glancing at the three to four bags they’d already thrown into the trailer. “Some of them do put it in bags, but the careless people just drop it on the ground when there’s a trash can right there. They just don’t even care.”

While each designated trash barrel was overflowing and some had made the effort to stack their garbage in bags next to the receptacles, the entire beach was littered with small bits of paper, plastic and aluminum trash, much of it only a few feet or yards from a sack or bin.

“It’s lots and lots of bottles. Bottles are prohibited, but people don’t really care and they bring them anyway, so the majority is beer bottles,” the worker said. Then, looking down the long beach from their position at one still litter-covered end, “It’s kind of a little overwhelming, but oh well, what can you do? All of this is going to take us a whole trailer.”

While the beach was being worked on, a lone fisherman walked around The Horseshoe, eyeballing the green landscape that was grossly marred by large and bulky bits of blue beer boxes, cans and other waste.

“I never fished in here,” the man said, looking down the shoreline. “I like to fish, but golly, look at all this crap.”

The fisherman said he wasn’t surprised to see the strewn bits of litter. And pondered whether it would ever change.

“I don’t know, I guess that’s the way people celebrate the fourth now. Get somebody else to clean up the mess.”

Despite a very busy weekend for the police department’s lake division officers, no major incidents were reported and crowds were kept under control.

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This isn't unusual considering the litter and miscellaneous items that are routinely strewn along the roads of San Angelo and Tom Green county. The behavior of these scofflaws is perhaps indicative of the pigsty-like appearance of their homes.

This kind of garbage is sad and shameful. I know I am lazy but I never left a camp site in this shape for no reason. I had some friends out at my place for their fireworks because the place they used to go was locke ddown because of trash last year. They cleaned every drop of trash and I think plus some that was already here. lol Why can't more people be like them?

CLOSE THE LAKE TO PEOPLE OR CHARGE A FEE TO USE THE LAKE. HAVE EVERYONE TELL ON EACH OTHER KINDA LIKE "BIG BROTHER" SINCE NO ONE CARES. REGARDING BEER HAVE CARS CHECKED FOR BEER AND FINE THOSE WHO BRING IT IN.

It is really sad how our parks are trashed out by lazy slobs! There are trash bins and cans all over the place and these "people" just throw their crap on the ground anyway.
It's bad all over-the areas back behind Ben Ficklin by the river are so pretty but these clods sneak out there and dump any and everything. I have see toilets, beds, tires and you name it. There needs to be some steep fines imposed on anyone caught doing this-put up cameras or something because it is pathetic!

live, Mon, 07/06/2015 - 17:07

Someone called and suggested that the city can adopt what South Padre Island does. When entering the island, you are charged $10 for a trash bag. Everyone has to buy the $10 trash bag to gain entrance to the island. Upon leaving, if you have a full trash bag to return to them, you get your $10 back.

Morrison could make it a rule that everyone has to bring their gaudy green and brown trash cans with them....

Even with the parks at the lake off limits, people just gathered next to (some IN) the road to set them off there. Even with law enforcement present. And naturally, all of their crap is still sitting there. I have to drive through it now on my way home. I was having to drive through lit fireworks Saturday night as the idiots were throwing them under my truck. One of these days they will just pass a law making fire crackers illegal entirely and folks will get all bent out of shape and won't understand why. Once again, entitlement. You idiots aren't entitled to have someone else wipe your as$! Somebody else (me) has to pay to have your trash picked up!! Enjoy it while it lasts....

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