MIAMI – Piles of litter and debris line the MacArthur Causeway and can be seen as cars travel into Miami Beach.
The Florida Department of Transportation cleared a good portion of the trash on Monday -- Earth Day.
“We are in one of the most polluted causeways in South Florida, the MacArthur Causeway,” said environmental activist MJ Algarra.
Mounds of debris piled up on the rocks adjacent to the causeway, just east of the children’s museum on the banks of Government Cut.
From clothing to scooters, the fear is that it will contaminate the water.
Algarra is the founder of Clean This Beach Up and has been cleaning up garbage off the side of the causeway since 2019.
“We don’t see it when we are on the highway,” she said. “The people from the cruises -- they are seeing these encampments, they are seeing the trash in the water, and that is not what we want people that visit Miami to see.”
Algarra calls it an ongoing battle and says one person seems to be responsible for the latest round of filth.
“We have reported this exact encampment four times. They have cleaned it three times,” said Algarra. “The same person keeps coming back and using it to dump a lot of trash.”
A representative for FDOT said that crews will return Tuesday to make sure everything is cleared up.
“Forty-eight hours ago, we posted this video, and they came and cleaned it and they are making things happen,” said Algarra.
Local 10 News reached out to Miami police to see if they know who keeps dumping trash along the causeway.
They said anyone caught littering can be charged with illegal dumping, which is a third-degree felony if waste over 500 pounds is dumped.