I feel like this is the reporter choosing ambiguous words. Was this a permit to discharge into “an unnamed ditch” whose location and ownership and end destination are unspecified in the permit and so it is unclear whether this ditch is the appropriate ditch? Or is it “an unnamed ditch” located near by the property, and is very clearly this ditch, the ditch just has no name? The wording in the article could be read either way.
Edit:
Found the permit in the news article linked from the original article. It seems like the wording comes directly from from the permit (https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/14/fb/2a0cdfa24e8791af37...). That reads to me though that this is then the second case (this specific ditch, which is unnamed) and not “an unnamed ditch, of which this is the wrong one”
