4th Of July Remains Litter Country Roads

We all know what they sound like on the 4th of July.

"Loud booms and bangs," James Lung said.

If you want to know what the 5th of July sounds like, you just need to listen to Lung's rake scraping on his concrete driveway while he cleans up fireworks.  Lung woke up to find the charred remains of America's birthday right on his property.  He said they did not come from his party.

"I figure the people who made the mess ought to clean it up.  I keep my area clean of firework debris," Lung said.

Passed the pavement in front of these houses is a bigger mess on nearby gravel roads.

"Garbage is everywhere.  The road is littered with garbage from people shooting stuff off," Brenda Smith said.

Smith has had plenty to look at during her drive on a country road outside of Sioux Falls.  Everything from wrappers to firework shells covers the gravel underneath her tires.

"Most of these people have kids.  What are they teaching their kids?" Smith said.

Only certain types of fireworks are allowed within city limits, so people go to the country.  When they are done, they leave, but Smith said the garbage sticks around for the next year.  When she lived in the country, she had bigger things on her mind than littered roads.

"It was scary.  I lived in a house that had a cedar roof and we couldn't go anywhere on the 4th of July because we were scared of fireworks landing on the roof," Smith said.

As for Lung and his pile of trash, well, he is not one to have a short fuse.

"Nah, just clean it up," Lung said.

In the past, prison inmates have picked up firework trash.  But Minnehaha County authorities said the separate townships are responsible for cleaning up.