A former Albuquerque, New Mexico, resident faces up to two years of prison time for the illegal disposal of highly dangerous chemicals in the area, according to KRQE.
Daniel Winard, who currently lives in Texas, had inherited property in New Mexico from a scientist, only to discover a significant amount of hazardous waste still on the property. After learning that legal methods of discharge were prohibitively expensive, Winard inexplicably decided to instead dump the chemicals — which included cyanide, yellow phosphorus, calcium carbide, and thionyl chloride — at nine locations in the Albuquerque area without a permit. This resulted in both the city and Bernalillo County picking up a tab of nearly $200,000 for the resulting contamination.
Winard was arrested and sentenced to prison, per KRQE; upon his release, he will be subject to three years of supervised release and must pay $9,527.55 in restitution.
It really should go without saying why Winard’s actions are incredibly dangerous. The urge to consider alternative methods of disposal after finding out how expensive the government-approved pathways are is understandable.
However, scientists have been doing research on how best to safely dump chemicals for decades and have arrived at the proper protocols deliberately and carefully. If you think the cost for those protocols is high now, just wait until the chemicals contaminate an entire ecosystem or town, causing mass illness or potentially even worse, and you’re held fully responsible.
This is all to say that if you find yourself in a situation where you need to dispose of hazardous waste — of any kind and on any scale — but do not necessarily have the financial flexibility to follow the laws on your own, reach out to the proper authorities and explain your situation. They will likely find a way to help you out, because as Winard’s jailing suggests, scientists and officials understand that the environmental stakes are far too high to be recklessly dumping dangerous chemicals wherever we please.
“There is no excuse for putting lives, property, and the environment at risk by dumping hazardous chemicals,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison in response to Winard’s conviction, per KRQE. “We will not tolerate reckless disregard for our communities’ safety. Those who endanger others for their own convenience can expect to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
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