In 2007, the chief engineer at a military retirement home in Washington, D.C., was dealing with a backed-up sewer system. The backup threatened to flood the part of the home that housed the sickest residents. To protect the residents from a dangerous flood of waste, the engineer, Lawrence Lewis, and his staff diverted the waste to a storm drain that they thought connected to the city’s sewer system. As it turns out, the drain went into a creek instead.
So Lewis — who was only trying to assist fragile residents of the retirement home — pleaded guilty in a federal court to violating the Clean Water Act. He got probation and was subjected to court-ordered supervision, The Wall Street Journal noted. Today, he has a “criminal” record.
There are good reasons to protect our water. But isn’t it absurd that a person who acted to safeguard human life was caught up in federal environmental rules that criminalized his good deed?