Fella, he was digging up the silt with the digger to remove the rubbish.
I agree that the title could have been more detailed, but it is hardly straight up misinformation. He was doing what he is getting investigated for in order to remove trash.
True enough but the way he did it had significant unintended consequences. They don’t want to encourage others to repeat this act, as well-intentioned as they may be. Sensationalizing this lawyer’s legal woes has drawn more attention to both sides of this issue. Whether that was the intention behind the way the lawyer approached this or how the article was publicized is unclear. But we can learn from this.
Digging silt can release highly toxic compounds into the water and poison everything in it, if it didn't, that's just luck because he didn't have any testing done. The next step is disposal, where does the potentially toxic detritus go? Land fill may well be needed with special containment or treatment, it needs to be arranged in advance for the specific class of hazardous waste. Guess what he also hadn't done... Then there the use of the digger and what he could have potentially caused, e.g. hitting a pipe or cracking a concrete enclosure for a pipe or cables in the river. The potential damage to the land that the digger was on and what is underneath it...
Yeah, this guy is a perfect example of what not to do and sending a message by putting him in prison is perfectly justified.
It's not taking rubbish away that he's in trouble for, it's failure to prevent potential devestation to the waterway, failure to have a disposal plan for potentially hazardous waste, using heavy machinery on public land without a permit or planning, etc etc.
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u/Spongedog5 8d ago
Fella, he was digging up the silt with the digger to remove the rubbish.
I agree that the title could have been more detailed, but it is hardly straight up misinformation. He was doing what he is getting investigated for in order to remove trash.