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Man goes to jail for collecting rainwater on his own property (OR)
mensnewsdaily.com ^ | 8/9/12 | Amy Alkon

Posted on 08/11/2012 10:34:06 AM PDT by Past Your Eyes

Kendra Alleyne writes at CNSNews.com about Gary Harrington, an Oregon man who was convicted of collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his property who's just begun serving a 30-day jail sentence for it:

"I'm sacrificing my liberty so we can stand up as a country and stand for our liberty," Harrington told a small crowd of people gathered outside of the Jackson County (Ore.) Jail.

(Excerpt) Read more at amyalkon.mensnewsdaily.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; US: Oregon
KEYWORDS: jail; oregon; property; water
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To: txrefugee

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn


21 posted on 08/11/2012 12:22:43 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: texican01

I suspect many of our city-dwelling and east of the Mississippi FR friends are unaware of the seriousness of water rights issues in the west.

We just spent over $25,000 to obtain water rights for a pond on our property which is not over 70’ in diameter, and has been there for over 30 years.


22 posted on 08/11/2012 12:27:31 PM PDT by QBFimi (When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen.)
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To: Past Your Eyes

Left coast gub mint gone NAZI;/


23 posted on 08/11/2012 12:28:14 PM PDT by Joe Boucher ((FUBO) Hey Mitt, F-you too pal)
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To: Past Your Eyes

Eyes, you running again?


24 posted on 08/11/2012 12:33:33 PM PDT by Little Bill
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To: Past Your Eyes

Eyes, you running again?


25 posted on 08/11/2012 12:33:43 PM PDT by Little Bill
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To: Past Your Eyes

same law applies in colorado.


26 posted on 08/11/2012 12:45:37 PM PDT by bravo whiskey
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To: Paladin2
Montana too.

I'm rethinking my and the pygmy pony's plan to open a dental floss farm up there.

FMCDH(BITS)

27 posted on 08/11/2012 12:48:27 PM PDT by nothingnew (I fear for my Republic due to marxist influence in our government. Open eyes/see)
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To: Past Your Eyes

AH, people love to put their bling bling children politicians in power. They think they are so cute and it is free... yeah... right... they will get it.

Ef’n retard Ayatollah Romney metrosexuals.


28 posted on 08/11/2012 12:56:28 PM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security Whorocracy & hate:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
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To: QBFimi
That's very interesting. From whom did you have to buy the water rights?

Once, a few years ago, I visited an old coffee plantation outside of Ponce, Puerto, Rico that was powered by an iron turbine manufactured in West Point N.Y. in 1847, and a 30 foot overshot water wheel. Surprisingly, the stream which fed the turbine and the wheel was only about a foot wide and a foot deep, but it powered a generator, a coffee mill, and a host of other machinery. It was all beautifully maintained and in perfect working order, but it had not been operated since around 1900. Apparently, under Spanish law the owner of the plantation had the right to use the water from the stream that ran through his property, but when Puerto Rico fell under U.S. sovereignty, that changed, and the plantation had to shut down.

29 posted on 08/11/2012 1:02:51 PM PDT by PUGACHEV
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To: Little Bill

Yes, I am. I will have an opponent in the general election but not the primary. I don’t know her but people in her town (Groton) tell me she and her husband are well out there in left field.


30 posted on 08/11/2012 1:05:07 PM PDT by Past Your Eyes (What if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today.)
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To: Past Your Eyes
If you need some bucks FReepmail me.
31 posted on 08/11/2012 1:12:56 PM PDT by Little Bill
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To: NEWwoman

It’s state law here in CO, all rainwater belongs to the state.

Includes the water in a bucket under a downspout, or even just left out in the rain.


32 posted on 08/11/2012 1:13:30 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle (Liberals, at their core, are aggressive & dangerous to everyone around them,)
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To: PUGACHEV

>> From whom did you have to buy the water rights?

From an irrigation company that has been in business since the 19th century. It was a trade, actually. In return for my being allowed to keep the water in my pond, they agreed to allow the equivalent amount of water (retained and evaporated) to be made available further downstream.

The risk of not doing this is that my “cachement basin” (which was turned into a pond over 30 years ago) could, at any time, be protested by a downstream neighbor. That neighbor could petition the state to force me to drain the pond.


33 posted on 08/11/2012 1:26:28 PM PDT by QBFimi (When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen.)
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To: Little Bill

Jeez, no! I got a check in the mail yesterday for $50 from a group wanting to help me out. I do not plan on spending any money for a job that pays $100/year (before taxes)!
But I thank you for the thought. We’ll see what this woman does. She ran last time and didn’t do much - came in 6th out of 6 candidates running for 3 seats. Districts were different then.
She did get the endorsement of the Sierra Club so guess where she’s coming from.


34 posted on 08/11/2012 1:40:39 PM PDT by Past Your Eyes (What if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

I see Dear Leader is doing the Mussolini pose again.


35 posted on 08/11/2012 1:44:23 PM PDT by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: Balding_Eagle
It's state law here in CO, all rainwater belongs to the state.

Colorado state Police finally apprehended Duke, the notorious rainwater thief.

Despite repeated sightings of Duke blatantly frolicking in recent heavy rains Duke has eluded capture taking his rain soaked coat God knows where.

Under state law as a repeat offender Duke faces the possibility of a death sentence being handed down.

*

*

*

In other news Colorado Law Enforcement revealed that the killer of Jon Benet Ramsey still remains at large.


36 posted on 08/11/2012 1:49:22 PM PDT by Covenantor ("Men are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern." Chesterton)
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To: Joe Boucher

Law dates to 1925...before we dammed the West. And before Nazis.


37 posted on 08/11/2012 1:49:52 PM PDT by gundog (Help us, Nairobi-Wan Kenobi...you're our only hope.)
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To: texican01; karnage
There are people who live their whole lives without even knowing about water rights laws and their variations.

When you get West of the 100 degree line you move into elevations mostly higher than 3000 feet and where the annual precipitation is just a fraction of what it is to the East.

Obviously water rights laws are going to vary with the circumstances, but unless you bother to study the situation and find out what these laws are about and how utterly ancient they are, you will invariably make erroneous conclusions.

Basically, where it rains a lot you can divert water at will. Where it doesn't rain very much, the fellow using that water (which may be downstream) has a priority over your new use so you'll probably need a permit of some kind, or maybe you'll have to buy out his water rights.

Some states started business without private claimants. Others had occupants when the US took over. That leads to sometimes almost inexplicable rules. Oregon was already part of Spanish North America and subject to Spanish traditional water rights laws once the inlet to the Inside Passage up there at the Alaskan border was discovered.

Once the US and UK made their settlement, Oregon continued to follow the traditional water rights laws imposed by Spanish ownership. And even though it rains a lot West of the mountains, it does not rain much at all East of that area. Most of Oregon is truly semi-arid.

This guy knew better.

38 posted on 08/11/2012 1:53:58 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: sjmjax

The nazi death camp guards lived in an area where there’s a lot of rain. They likely wouldn’t have understood this either, but if they had to live all their lives in the Sahel, they’d known.


39 posted on 08/11/2012 1:55:38 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: rurgan
You did know that even if government didn't exist, the downstream users would enforce their right to prior use with deadly force, right?

That's the ancient law in arid and semi-arid regions.

Their neighbors would applaud the killings of anyone tapping their water.

40 posted on 08/11/2012 1:57:57 PM PDT by muawiyah
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