Uncle Charlie sounds like a character.

Reminds me of an old neighbor who would tell me stories of things he has done, if it had been anyone else you would know he was stretching the truth but with someone like my neighbor/ uncle Charlie... the stories were true.

Hope he is smiling and telling everyone, he did it his way!! GO UNCLE CHARLIE!!!!!!

No, that is what you think the difference is.

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If that had happened one would think it would be part of the story. If you know that he actually went house to house and asked what His neighbors would like in compensation for the destruction of their property apologize. I didn’t read that in the story that was posted.

I”lol take a different position. Decades ago I worked on cleaning up a bunch of junk yards in the San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles) that would drain engine oil and antifreeze onto the ground and fukc up OUR groundwater. Those yard operators didn’t care because dumping on the ground was free to them. But we, the public, spent billions cleaning up their crap, same for Lockheed and others. I pulled very yellow water out of groundwater monitoring wells miles from Lockheed that had 1,000s of times the drinking water standards of hexavalent chromium, a strong carcinogen.

No, it is not specifically stated in the story that he did that. There are a lot of things that are left unsaid in that story. What does come through, however, is the character of the man. He helps others any way he can. That comes through loud and clear. You have to ask if a man like that would destroy other's property and just walk (or in this case drive) away. Of course not.

It doesn't really show up all that well or for all that long in the flyover video, but that video does serve to reinforce what I said earlier - that junk is out there anyway. You could check out a one, maybe two mile radius around Charlie's place and see far more junk, in total, sitting on neighboring properties than Charlie has on his. Drive through farm country anywhere in the U.S. and you will see similar piles of junk on just about every farm. It's all rotting away and deteriorating somewhere, doing every bit as much - if not more - damage to our natural resources as it is from Charlie's property.

I'm not trying to make him out to be some kind of saint, nor am I endorsing what he has done. He has ruined a beautiful piece of property and has accumulated one hell of a mess that the rest of us now get to pay to clean up. In a roundabout sort of way, however, by gathering other peoples' junk all in one place, hasn't he actually made it a good deal easier to clean up? Hell, if it were all left scattered on other's properties, it would likely never get cleaned up at all. Which is better?

I probably have Jeff to thank: Uncle Charlie sent me a FB friend request soon after this thread started. It been interesting to follow his plight.

I won't invade his privacy by copying his latest post today - Just to say he got some bad news today in King County Superior Court.

Jeff, Chuck talks of leaving a bit to Eastern WA where he is from. You know what town? I'd like to visit and buy him lunch....Thanks....

That would be Wapato. Our common grandparents (Higgins) wound up there after leaving their farm in Kansas.

Thax Jeff.....Wapato is only a little over an hour away....I put it on my calendar to reach out in Sept.........Wishing all the best......

Yeah, I have not seen Chuck in years. I'll have to do the same, once he is out.

My brother in law is an interesting character who used to pour his motor oil into a hole 20 feet from the well. It is possible to separate how you feel about someone as a person from how you feel about something they have done. It had to be stopped.
I'm sorry you don't get that.

There is no shame in going to jail if you learn something from it. It would be real shame if future generations had to deal with the aftermath of contaminated ground water because someone who is a great guy kept doing the same things over and over because he didn't think.
Put your big boy pants on. You can be a great guy and screw up. If you and or your cousin wanted to man up here, there would be a lot of things he could do to escape incarceration. Doing the same things over and over (rather that admit it might not be such a great thing to do) would not be one of them.

Sadly Jeff, I just might be right, even if I suck as a human being. I'd help your cousin, if that was what you came here for. I'm just not going to make him right about this or overlook the fact that he broke the law. I'm sorry if that hurts your feelings.
Separate yourself from this situation, and maybe you could figure out some ways in which you could help your kin. I invite you to figure that out, even if I am not fit to carry your water. I suck so bad that I am the only person here that will say that to you rather than sugar coat it. I can live with that, and I know there is value in what I am saying. You are a smart guy. Figure it out.