BLUE RIVER, Ore. (AP) — Two people face federal charges that they built an illegal dam in a side channel of the McKenzie River east of Springfield.
Three years ago Geraldine Betz and Stephen Ponder built — and then paid to remove — the dam near Blue River.
The Register-Guard reports (http://bit.ly/qIitiS ) that the two former neighbors are scheduled to appear Aug. 22 in U.S. District Court for a plea and sentencing hearing on a single count each of the misdemeanor offense.
According to a court document prepared by the U.S. Department of Justice Environmental Crimes Section, the pair knowingly discharged “multiple dumptruck loads of rock and other material” into the channel without a permit.
