Flush by Carl Hiaasen

Noah's dad is ALWAYS in trouble. As in, so bad he's always in jail. It's not like murdering other people or anything like that. It's just that he catches people doing bad things to the environment because he cares about the environment. His most recent breakdown was about this: There's this casino boat called the Coral Queen, and Noah's dad suspects that Dusty Muleman, the person who runs the boat, has been dumping all the sewage into the water after the Coral Queen closes.

So in the night, Noah's dad sunk the Coral Queen. He told Noah that after he sunk it, he opened a soda, and fell asleep watching the boat go down to the bottom of the ocean and was caught in the morning. So one day, when Noah goes down to see his dad at the jail cell, he asks him, "Why can't you just say you're sorry so you can come home?"

His dad answers,"But Noah, I'm not sorry for what I did. I'm gonna wait until I'm due to come out of jail."

So that sets Noah's mom off. She calls Noah's Dad's lawyer to set up a divorce. So Noah's dad breaks out of prison in the middle of the night, and becomes on house arrest. But Noah still hasn't forgotten the promise he made with his dad. But apparently, his Dad has. So Noah and his sister are on their own to find a way and nail Dusty Muleman to prove that Noah's Dad is right.