Sometimes it feels like no good deed goes unpunished. You can’t hand out food to the homeless without getting arrested, nor can you leave water for people in the desert without facing decades in prison. And don’t even think about volunteering your time to pick trash out of the river — a lesson environmental lawyer Paul Powlesland is learning the hard way.
According to the Guardian, Powlesland is now in deep water with the UK’s Environmental Agency after organizing a group of volunteers called the River Roding Trust to dredge garbage out of a small tributary in the northeast exurbs of London.
The outlet reports Powlesland and his team pulled 200 bags of garbage and organic debris out of a creek called Alders Brook over a ten-day period. For that transgression, the environmental regulator sent Powlesland a notice informing him that he’s been placed under investigation for “permitting and waste offences.”
“We consider that unpermitted works have taken place… in contravention of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016,” advised the letter, which was viewed by the Guardian.
The EA’s main complaint seems to be that the dredging was significant enough that it constitutes a flood risk. If authorities decide to prosecute Powlesland, he faces a maximum of two years in prison, an absurd penalty for a good samaritan.
What’s worse, Powlesland told the Guardian he’s asked the agency numerous times to clean the river, but it’s been ignoring him for years.
“After decades of ignoring rampant environmental crime on the Roding, the Environment Agency has finally decided to act,” he said. “But it’s not action against Thames Water [utility company] for dumping billions of litres of sewage in the Roding, or the waste criminals who have dumped thousands of tonnes of rubbish on its banks, but against the River Roding Trust for… restoring a river without a permit.”
Still, Powlesland doesn’t seem to regret the cleanup effort, telling the paper that the “section of the river which was cleared is really coming back beautifully, wildlife is returning, yet we are being threatened with prosecution.”
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