Trash flew Monday morning at the Red Shirt Village dump.

But this time it wasn't just from the wind.

Crews from Crazy Horse Construction in Pine Ridge rumbled into the long-standing mess just west of town as part of a reservation-wide cleanup of troubling trash heaps.

And residents who have for years lived near and complained about the sites were hopeful this time the cleanup campaign would last.

"I'm happy. They had machinery there yesterday, and this morning they were going at it, full blast," the Rev. Robert Two Bulls said Monday afternoon.

As president of Red Shirt Village, the retired Episcopal priest tempers his optimism about the cleanup with realistic recollections of the past. The dumps have been cleaned up before, only to revert into eye sores that degrade the landscape and create hazards to the environment and human health.

That's why Two Bulls will follow the cleanup closely and watch for the promised maintenance and monitoring in the months to come.

"That place needs to be cleaned real good," Two Bulls said. "We can't have it half done. That's how they usually do it."

Things are supposed to have changed from the usual ways of the past, however, through a federal lawsuit that will require not just the initial cleanup of a series of reservation waste sites. The court mandate also will require proper trash disposal and maintenance for up to 15 years.

A consent decree filed last December in U.S. District Court in Rapid City required the Oglala Sioux Tribe to clean up 11 wind-blown waste sites, including Red Shirt.

Tribal environmental protection director Bob Pille said Monday the tribe is hustling to meet a June 1 cleanup deadline mandated by the court, even though work began late because of delays in funding.

"It took such a long time for the money to come down from the feds, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service, but we've got it and we've actually begun the cleanup," Pille said. "It was supposed to be a 90-day cleanup, but we're doing it half that time."

Rapid City lawyer Jim Leach represented several citizens in successful long-standing, but eventually successful legal case for the cleanup of the sites. Leach said Monday that he was encouraged to hear that cleanup had begun.

"That's great. This is what I hoped would be happening," he said "This will be great for the people living out there."

The dumps, most of which were designed as trash-transfer locations rather than more permanent disposal areas, have been cleaned up before. But those efforts faltered as funding and government commitments faded. Leach said the recent court decree includes a monitoring provision designed to prevent a repeat of past neglect.

"That's where the consent decree comes in," he said. "We have five to 15 years of monitoring out there. And if it reverts back to the way it's been, we can go straight back into court. I hope we won't have to do that."

There is an initial five-year-monitoring provision which can be extended by two additional five-year terms through a request to federal court by Leach, others involved in the case or other citizens.

The BIA and Indian Health Service have committed more than $240,000 for the initial cleanup stage, Pille said. The long-standing cleanup and disposal burden will fall to the tribe, which has bonding authority for more than $3.5 million to upgrade its trash hauling, handling and disposal system.

"That's for equipment and all the other costs. It's quite a bit of money the tribe is committing," Pille said. "We're going to get this done."

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com