Kyrie Irving’s Extension — WFNY’s Top 10 Cleveland Sports Stories of 2014: No. 6
December 19, 2014Nike to hold a Kyrie Irving experience tonight at The Q
December 19, 2014(Insert dramatic laser sound effects.)
“Is Joe Thomas guilty of polluting the earth? We’ll have more on this on the 11 o’clock news!”
That’s all I could think of when I saw the AP headline on Joe Thomas that said, “Browns’ Thomas accused of environmental violations.”
The state Department of Natural Resources sent the former Wisconsin Badgers standout and seven-time Pro Bowler a letter Wednesday accusing him of 11 violations. They range from building bridges and dams and enlarging a pond without permits to tearing down a barn without notice of intent and discharging manure into a wetland.
“In the end it’s just rabbit turds here.”
DNR officials want to meet with Thomas on Jan. 6 — after the regular season ends — to discuss the allegations. Some of the violations are punishable by fines of $10,000 for every day in violation, the letter says, but doesn’t offer details on the number of days.
Ack! That sounds horrible and awful and scary. I can’t believe Joe Thomas would do something like this and pollute the earth! What does Joe Thomas have to say for himself?!
“I know it sounds horrific when you see the list of violations,” he said, “but in the end it’s just rabbit turds here.”
I don’t have Joe Thomas’ eloquence, but it seems he might be right that there could be a lot more to the story. This could be more about permits and paperwork than anything else. If you believe Thomas and his contractors, despite not having all the proper paperwork, they’ve done nothing but try to fix up a dilapidated property that was littered with old farm equipment when Thomas bought it in 2012.
Sure, it’s a good idea to get all the proper permits, but let’s just say it would seem odd that a rich guy like Thomas who loves outdoor sports would buy an ugly property with dilapidated buildings and old equipment with the idea of making it worse.
13 Comments
Do rabbits get fined when they poop in a wetland?
They range from building bridges and dams and enlarging a pond without permits to tearing down a barn without notice of intent and discharging manure into a wetland.
Building bridges? I don’t see the negative environmental impact there.
Building dams and enlarging a pond? Okay, here can be an environmental impact and seem to be related to each other. However, unless that water is getting diverted from someone else’s property, negative/positive is likely debateable.
Tearing down a barn w/o notice of intent? Ummm, the intent was to tear it down.
Discharging manure into a wetland? hahahahahahahahaha
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yeah, he should get all the permits that he was supposed to get and he’ll likely have to pay for it now with some type of fine. but, nothing to see here, move along.
Do the Browns get fined for discharging manure on the First Energy field? There was an awful lot on Sunday.
I’ve worked on a few EPA/DNR cases in the past, and they get pretty freaking ridiculous. the fines are only really exorbitant when it’s a major corp at the heart of it.
First of all, fantastic picture.
Secondly, even the DNR knew the Browns weren’t making the playoffs. Sad trombone – wah waaahhh.
Yes! Read the article and was about to write this comment myself… you saved me some time! From my understanding, just about any state’s Department of Natural Resources (or similar) is going to crap a brick about all kinds of minor stuff like this when it comes to the water supply. You have to pay them for permits and pay their cronies to do work on your land… you can’t just do it yourself, even if you know what you are doing.
This reminds me of how Joe spent draft day fishing with his dad.That’s when I knew things were going to be okay.
It’s probably considered a wetland, after Bottlegate.
At least he wasn’t fracking.
I have no idea of the details of Thomas’ transgressions, and I will not assume any level of guilt. However, discharging an excessive amount of manure (and I have no idea how many rabbits Joe squeezed over his pond) could definitely upset the biota of wetlands, and we need all the healthy wetlands we can get. Science matters and it’s a bad idea all around.
But it sounds to me like he is simply improving a crappy piece of land and didn’t do it the way his local government wanted him to. It’s probably not a big deal, but he should know better. He’s not an idiot.
And I heard he pancaked the barn from a three-point stance.
I’m a Browns for a half century but if he has violated environmental laws, I hope he gets the book thrown at him. I am more disgusted with the trashing of our environment by “rural folks” than I am with the cruddy Browns play. So many rural people think they can tear up and trash the land anyway the want. We are all suffering and wildlife is suffering because of that.
If he doesn’t catch the book is that littering?
Not if it’s printed on recycled paper.