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.
Just say no
T-23 and counting. Start taking names for the purge.
Wait’ll after the 20th...
under what real estate law are you allowed to hide a material fact and get away with it ?
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.
“Hey, what’re you in for?”
“Impounding water”
January 21st, 2017. Capiche? “Rain” in these tyrants President Trump.
They’re probably breathing gov’t air as well.
Great, now when it floods the good people of Oregon can sue the Medford Water Commission for the damage “their” water caused.
To quote one of Henry Fonda's characters:
"Just 'cause it's wrote on paper don't make it so."
The government is becoming a water empire, and water is life.
- the county didn’t take issue with the pond until Jon sought to grow legal medical cannabis on the land and had to prove there was a viable source of water for the grow operation
- Besides a trailer home and dilapidated house, the pond is the only thing of value on their acreage, and, obviously, as Sabrina said, “We didn’t buy it for the double-wide.”
- [former owner] 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
- “1925 state law dictates that the water belongs to the Medford Water Commission.”
So there is a law dating back to 1925 regulating this situation. 1925 was before we had aggressive EPA types trampling on us. So the law may actually have some merit.
Water is a precious resource and there can be genuine problems downstream, so to speak, if a landowner creates an enormous diversion like the previous property owner, Harrington, appears to have done.
Just as the right to free speech has some common-sense limitations (e.g. yelling fire in a crowded theater may not always be a right), the right to "do as you please" with your own property has some common sense limitations too.
Do not let anyone have the water rights on private property. These little dictators need to be kicked out of office and the government agencies abolished. There was a discussion by the Founders to enshrine the right to “life, liberty and property” instead of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” They chose the wrong phrase.
Just let a local environmental group know that the county wants to drain a pond that is the only place in the state where the Bearded Purple Salamander or other “endangered” species resides.
Once the “Earth First/Anti-people” take the baton, the county will reverse course on it’s decision.
Remember that liberals are a collection of smaller subgroups that are often at odds with one another. Don’t fight the county yourself, get the libs to fight each other.
“1925 state law dictates that the water belongs to the Medford Water Commission.”
They need to get a referendum and have that law abolished through a vote of the people...
Fine.
Block off/divert ingress and egress drainage routes, drain the pond, refill it with purchased water ($$$), and install a filtration system with appropriate overflow controls ($$).
Presto!
Two acre stocked swimming pool. (May need a special use permit due to its size.)
The county water master will then have no more right to regulate rainwater falling onto that pond than any other open air swimming pool in the county.
As for the cost, what are they currently paying in lawyer fees?