What I am on a rampage about today is the amount of garbage the oilfield folks are tossing along country roads. The area surrounding the ranch has become a dumping grounds for all types of food containers, cans and bottles. Sure, we used to get our share of beer cans tossed by the local teens, but since the drilling has escalated, the trash has quadrupled. This past weekend we picked up a 45-gallon trash bag full (PARTNER really packs it in.) and an additional lawn and garden size trash bag. We only cleaned one side of less than two miles of road fronting our property.
It gave me great insight into our litterers. They drink cheap beer...Keystone Light and energy drinks and smoke Marlborough Lights. I was flabbergasted to find so many tossed cigarette butts along the roadside, considering the incredible fire danger we have been under. These folks eat lots of burritos and like Vienna sausages. Maybe the name "oilfield trash" really applies to them, too. Nothing like a few drunk drivers in over-sized vehicles tossing out lit cigarettes! What are they thinking?
Following in the tradition of those old-fashioned Burma Shave signs that dotted the highways of yesteryear, I have erected my own red and white signs along the county road bordering the ranch.
Your drink is gone.
Your thirst is quenched.
Your can is drained
and there's the fence.
To toss or not
you can't decide.
Give the land a break.
Take your can for a ride.
It doesn't seem to be slowing down the garbage flow, but it does give me some satisfaction in calling the oilfield workers to task for their littering. (Doesn't PARTNER look happy?...amazingly, this wasn't his idea.)
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