Did this man trust a judge or did a jury convict him?
Put an open container in your back yard and go to jail. I don’t think even Stalin was that inventive.
The mistake is thinking that we really have private property. The first goal of communism is confiscating all private property. We’re almost communist now, especially in oregon, so what you think is your property is really the state’s. They lend it to you, but make you pay for it, and make you pay for taxes on it, and make you pay for insurance, and make you pay for upkeep, but it’s really not yours. You don’t have the right to do what you want on your property.
There are water rights out west. One must get a permit before doing something like he did and prove he has the water rights to his land. No water rights per the property’s deed, you are dead.
In this case, he is lucky to be going to jail for a year.
Rule number one out west - check the land deed to ascertain who has the water rights to the property before buying it.
Evidently, this poor shlub failed to realize that, in a Marxist society, EVERYTHING belongs to The State.
He is allowed to utilize The State’s property only at sufferance.
Collection is not the issue. Impoundment is. Can only retain so much without a water right certificate
However, note of caution. There's a difference between slight "collecting of water" and creating reservoirs or dams. The common law views creating reservoirs or dams as "abnormally dangerous activity" because of the danger it poses to others. Normally someone doing that is liable for harm if the dam or reservoir brakes no matter how careful the person is. A law limiting this kind of activity is not necessarily unjust.
They do things differently in Oregon.
Oregon man was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail...
in July 2012.
Hey WideAwake,
Is this the same guy?
I understand Colorado has similar draconian water-rights laws.
Regarding crying about constitutional rights concerning water, the states have never amended the Constitution to enumerate a right to water. So the gentleman in question is learning about unchecked 10th Amendment-protected state powers the hard way. Ciizens need to work with their state lawmakers to iron out old laws that possibly no longer serve a purpose.
In fact, a joke that I have heard about the northwest is the following. How do you know when it is summer in the northwest? The punchline is that the rain has gotten warmer.
I also understand that the northwest gets so much rain that its hydroelectric-generated power gives the northwest some of the lowest prices on electricity in the country.
So I'm not quite sure why Oregon is concerned about people collecting rainwater. On the other hand, why do people in northwest need to collect rainwater? I'm sure I'll get some insights from northwestern freepers on this issue.
In Maryland they found the answer...They tax the rain!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbrown/2014/01/03/when-it-rains-it-pours-tax-dollars-in-maryland/
How far does it have to go before people demand that government stop?!?
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It’s been a law for 89 years, so apparently quite far.
He should have moved.
Gee,... wonder what I’d get for routing my rain gutters to send the rain water my garden.
Next week: Man jailed and fined for breathing air on his property.