One region alone - Yakutia - has 5 million tons scrap metal dumped in polar regions, an ugly Soviet legacy.

John Craighead "Craig" George was swept under a logjam last Wednesday on the Chulitna River near Cantwell, Alaska State Troopers said. The dive team responded to the area Friday morning but found that the water was too high to deploy.The rafting party was decending when they encountered an unusual amount of logjams.

Residents of the Providensky urban district, together with border guards and military personnel, cleared the territory near Cape Chaplin from barrels. Volunteers collected more than 500 old empty barrels near the ancient Eskimo settlement Unazik, Chukotka news agency reports.

The Northway Mall in northeast Anchorage sits almost totally empty. That’s led to people dumping loads of trash, furniture, appliances and industrial waste all over the property.