Posted on 12/28/2016 12:48:41 PM PST by Lorianne
An Oregon couple has been told they must destroy a 2-acre pond on their land — the property’s most attractive feature — because the government said so.
Although Jon and Sabrina Carey purchased the 10-acre property near Butte Falls two and a half years ago, the pond has been in place for 40 years — but that fact doesn’t matter to the Jackson County Watermaster’s Office.
“I basically bought a lemon,” said Jon, who became teary-eyed at the edge of the partially ice-covered body of water being targeted by government, in an interview with the Mail Tribune. “That’s how they explained it to me.” But the couple desperately wants to keep the stunning longstanding feature in tact, so, as the Mail Tribune reports, the Careys have “pleaded with the Medford Water Commission to adopt the pond and treat it as a municipal water source, something Jackson County Watermaster Larry Menteer has opposed because of the precedent it would set.
“The Water Commission has rights to the watershed around the Careys’ property, where dozens, if not hundreds, of ponds are located, as well as Medford’s primary source of water, Big Butte Springs.”
And the Careys aren’t the only people in the watershed who’ve had difficulties with, well, ‘the government’s’ water.
Eagle Point resident Gary Harrington spent 90 days in jail for illegally harboring some 13 million gallons of illicit rainwater — that’s enough rain to fill around 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Harrington masterfully crafted several ponds on his property — even building docks for one, and stocking it with largemouth bass — but his insistence the water would assist in fire control and prevention didn’t satisfy the government, since a “1925 state law dictates that the water belongs to the Medford Water Commission.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thefreethoughtproject.com ...
Were the property owners originally compensated for the taking of wAter on their land? Sounds like a case for Federal Court under taking without compensation.
You’re not really allowed to own anything.
But sometimes the government lets you use stuff you paid for. And sometimes not.
It’s a law — which means it could be changed. Get the citizens of the community together, and go to the board, and tell them to change the law, or elect people who will.
Otherwise — don’t move into any place where the government insists they own the water.
I would gear up a Constitutional challenge to that law. It sounds like a “taking” for which I doubt any compensation was ever paid.
Just say no
T-23 and counting. Start taking names for the purge.
Wait’ll after the 20th...
They voted for demondogs, what do they expect?
under what real estate law are you allowed to hide a material fact and get away with it ?
Why can’t they sue the government for unwanted Federal rainwater falling on their land or collecting on their land?
If the Fed owns the rain, then they need to property collect it in a giant upside down umbrella over the properties who don’t want it on their land.
I would pump the pond dry and take the water to the nearest governmental building and then dump the water back into the assholes who say they own it.
The Board
There are five members on the Board of Water Commissioners who volunteer to serve five-year overlapping terms. Each year a board member is appointed or re-appointed to the Commission by the Mayor and that appointment is approved by the City Council. The sole responsibility of the Board of Water Commissioners is the operation of the community’s water system. The Water Commission functions independently from other City of Medford operations.
Board meetings, which are open to the public, are held twice monthly, on the first and third Wednesdays unless otherwise scheduled. The meetings are held in the City of Medford’s Lausmann Annex, Room 151, at 12:15 p.m. (+/-; shall begin at the conclusion of the study session).
Please contact the Administration office at 541-774-2440 if you would like more information about board meetings.
Current Board of Water Commissioners
Leigh Johnson, Chair
Lee Fortier, Vice Chair
John Dailey
Jason Anderson
Bob Strosser
Medford City Council Liaisons
Chris Corcoran
Michael Zarosinski, Alternate
“Hey, what’re you in for?”
“Impounding water”
Why can’t they sue the government for unwanted Federal rainwater falling on their land or collecting on polluting their land? There fixed it.
January 21st, 2017. Capiche? “Rain” in these tyrants President Trump.
They’re probably breathing gov’t air as well.
This is not a federal matter.
Furthermore, it is not unusual for a government agency or authority to own the rainwater in a watershed.
Here in Texas, people are billed or fined for drawing water from lakes that their property ajoins.
The land belongs to you, the water does not.
Fine them!
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