Taking a cue from the Supreme Court, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has vacated the conviction of U.S. Navy veteran Joseph D. Robertson, who languished in prison for a year and a half for digging fire protective ponds near his home outside Basin, Montana, without federal permits.
Federal regulators claimed that Robertson interfered with “navigable water”—a small ditch with a trickle of water—when he dug the ponds. The Environmental Protection Agency declared the ditch a federally protected waterway under the Clean Water Act and required a federal permit—even though his home is 40 miles from the Jefferson River, the nearest navigable waterway.
