Chilliwack residents say what was once a pristine recreation area has been turned into an open garbage dump.
The banks of the Chilliwack River have been littered with trash and they say it comes from a nearby homeless camp.
Resident Matthew Fuller posted a series of photos to a local Facebook page that show everything from laptops to leaf blowers to piles of clothes strewn near the river.
“I have nothing against homeless people or anything but if you’re leaving needles behind for little kids to step on then that’s pretty frustrating,” Fuller said.
He added he would like to see debris cleaned up although much of it has “washed down the river already.”
Nikki Rekman of the Chillwack Vedder River Cleanup Society — an organization formed in 2002 by a group of concerned anglers — says the issue isn’t new.
“It’s been around for years but maybe more people are becoming aware of the problem,” she said.
“Our concern is that it’s actually going to get into the waterway and it impacts that ecosystem and eventually it’s going to end up in the ocean further downstream.”
Rekman says she believes this is the second time a homeless camp has been set up near Teskey Rock. A homeless camp was cleared from the area last March along with 17,000 pounds of garbage.
The provincial government manages the land around the camp but didn’t provide an update to Global News on Sunday.
Rekman says conservation officers can’t keep up with the mess.
“There’s only so much they can do,” she said. “In a lot of way their hands are tied, resources are limited.”
Rekman notes that the garbage is most likely from the nearby camp but she points out that “there are other people that are dumping at the river.”
“We all have a responsiblity to deal with our waste and our garbage as we should,” she said.
— With files from Tanya Beja
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