Ex-truck driver gets prison for poisoning S. Carolina creek A former truck driver has been sentenced to 90 days in prison for illegally dumping toxic landfill waste into a creek system near South Carolina’s only national park

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A former truck driver has been sentenced to 90 days in prison for illegally dumping toxic landfill waste into a creek system near South Carolina’s only national park.

News outlets report 45-year-old Michael Greene was sentenced Wednesday and ordered to pay a $25,000 fine. He also was given a year of probation.

Greene and his attorney asked for mercy from Judge Michelle Childs, saying the waste didn’t majorly impact the environment. Prosecutors disputed that claim.

Greene faced up to three years in prison for repeatedly dumping chemicals in 2017 in the Wateree River drainage basin, which flows past Congaree National Park. He would back up a tanker truck and dump polluted water containing chemicals such as mercury and lead. Greene said he was just “trying to save time.”