MISSOULA, Mont.(AP)—A judge sentenced a Montana man to 18 months in prison Wednesday for violating the federal Clean Water Act as protesters outside the courthouse decried the charges as government overreach.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy also ordered Joseph Robertson, 77, to pay $129,933 in restitution for ponds that he dug on Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest land and on private property near his mining claim in Basin.
The ponds that Robertson dug in 2013 and 2014 discharged dredged and fill materials into a tributary of Cataract Creek and into nearby wetlands, prosecutors said.
He continued to dig after being told repeatedly that it was illegal for him to do so, resulting in nine ponds over more than an acre, prosecutors said.
The stream and wetlands provide support to trout downstream in the Boulder and Jefferson rivers.
Robertson was charged with two counts of unauthorized discharge of pollutants into waters of the U.S. and one count of malicious mischief.
Source: www.capitalpress.com