Shitty Trick Gets Fabulous Fine

Laurel woman to pay $12K for polluting Chesapeake Bay

A Laurel woman must pay $12,000 in fines after pleading guilty to polluting a Wicomico County waterway which feeds into the Chesapeake Bay. Marie J. Marius pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charges of water pollution and the improper alteration of a sewage system, according to Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh. Attempts to contact Marius were unsuccessful.

According to Frosh’s office, new tenants renting her home contacted both Marius and her husband, Darnell, in February 2013 to complain about sewage backing up in the house. The Mariuses then hired someone to install a discharge pipe at the home to solve the sewage issue. It was determined the pipe fed into a wooded area which flowed into a creek that is a tributary of the Wicomico River and, conversely, the Chesapeake Bay.
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As a result of her sentence, Marius must pay $12,000 immediately to the Maryland Clean Water Fund. She was sentenced to pay $35,000 fine, but $23,000 of which was suspended. In addition, she must perform 75 hours of community service and will be placed on probation for three years, Frosh’s office said.

That may teach them to fix it right the fist time. I'm surprised that the state is also not going after the plumber who installed the discharge pipe.