Posted on 08/01/2012 5:54:54 AM PDT by dontreadthis
Jackson County, Oregon says it owns YOUR rainwater, and the county has sentenced a man to 30 days in jail and fined him over $1500, for the supposed "crime" of collecting rainwater on his own property.
The man's name is Gary Harrington, and he owns over 170 acres of land in Jackson County. On that land, he has three ponds, and those ponds collect rainwater that falls on his land. Common sense would say Gary has every right to have ponds with water on his 170 acres of land, but common sense has been all but abandoned in the state of Oregon.
(Excerpt) Read more at naturalnews.com ...
This is bumbo jumbo horseshit....he dug a hole on his property a it rained in the hole. The government does not own everything it declares it owns. This is the end result of environmental Nazism!! This is happening in Oregon because of the sheep that live there and elect these idiot's!!
The alternative to an hydraulic tyranny is to RELOCATE to somewhere else where it rains.
Ancient Hydraulic Tyrannies occurred along the Euphrates, Nile, Indus, Ganges, Huang Ho, Yangtze, etc. and around the lake in which ancient Mexico city nestled (for example).
It's fairly certain the leaders in Terre Haute were well on their way to the same political system inasmuch as they'd figured out how to build large fish lagoons and pens to thereby augment the protein needs of the community. The earthen dams that made the fish lagoons possible are still there ~ there are some in/near Evansville, Indiana and probably around and or near Cahokia (more digging needed to find the soil changes that accompany fish pens though).
The United States, in the aggregate, is able to avoid becoming an hydraulic tyranny simply because people are free to move, and they also vote. That does not mean you can just willy nilly divert water to your own personal use in arid and semi-arid regions. What happens if you allow that sort of behavior is a single individual becomes the tyrant with the power of life and death over his neighbors.
Where it rains sufficiently this is not a real risk. Where it doesn't rain sufficiently that risk is there all the time.
It’s the same term ~ used both situations. Where it rains a lot you’d be diverting just that stream. Where it doesn’t rain a lot you’d be diverting part of the total flow of water in that region.
Put a collar on the rain, and maybe you got a case eh!
He needs to sue the state for the costs of having to deal with their rainwater on his property.
seriously...King George III made the mistake of presuming every tree on the Atlantic coast was his, for the Royal Navy.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2911470/posts Earlier thread ~ all the same stuff ~ more discussion.
Its not western water rights law, it goes back farther in history than than, its called Tyrany.
Nobody “owns” rain, or air.
The underlying economic and political power of the Mormons in Utah flow from the fact that they prior appropriated large amounts water there.
First in time, first in right.
Oregon is not Arid. Note even semi-arid, more like sopping wet drying down to humid.
During his reign Philip I/II of Spain had clearly set forth what the water rights laws were for each zone and region in the Spanish empire.
There are latin names for these zones BTW, but I don't happen to know them right off hand. But this stuff is in The Law Of The Indies if you wondered.
His son, Philip II/III, is the guy who decided to DIVIDE North America up among various European powers for purposes of development. Oregon was retained by Spain until the boundary with Russian North America could be determined ~ would it be 54/40, or further Souf ~ or maybe even at San Fran Bay eh!
Good thing for the Oregonians here that they eventually found an inlet along the Inland Passage to the North at about what is now the Southern boundary of Alaska. That pretty much cancelled the Russian claim to San Fran ~ and you know, of course, the history of Fort Ross, right?
What that also did was extend the customary water rights found in Arid and Semi-Arid lands to all of Oregon! Also to British Columbia, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Northern California!
So, let's just say, Spain Did It ~ and it's been that way a very long time. Eventually the US purchased the territory, respected a handful of landgrants, and began selling it off ~ with Western Water Rights law in place ~ and there you have it.
Guy hasn't got a leg to stand on.
This guy has a choice ~ he can get his permits like everybody else, or move. It's not a tyranny.
Oh well if the Spaniards did it that settles it. What a croc..this isn’t about water rights ...it’s about government tyranny! The government takes the rights that sheep allow. If I take a walk in the mud and the water from the next storm is trapped in my footprints am I guilty of stealing the states water!!
The Eastern part of Oregon lies in a “rain shadow” created by the mountains in the Western part. It’s an arid region.http://www.google.com/imgres?q=oregon+semi-arid+region&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=960&bih=503&tbm=isch&tbnid=Ia7N9fHdeURlwM:&imgrefurl=http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/recharge-variability-in-semi-arid-climates-26169682&docid=gmbf4GgVoeWVdM&imgurl=http://www.nature.com/scitable/content/ne0000/ne0000/ne0000/ne0000/26173189/1_2.jpg&w=626&h=450&ei=aT0ZUPj3BKSA6QGm7oHQAg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=290&vpy=2&dur=2811&hovh=190&hovw=265&tx=113&ty=69&sig=115378194030298171099&page=1&tbnh=134&tbnw=187&start=0&ndsp=8&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:0,i:91
This is surface water. It gets really complicated when you start talking about underground water.
It's apparently a tyranny going all the way back to the initial application of European hegemony at the beginning of honkie exploration of the Americas.
Thanks for the clarification. That makes more sense of why he is so upset and he does have a complaint under those circumstances. If a man wants to build a berm the entire length of his boundary with the creek/river he should be allowed to. Otherwise he should sue the County for letting the rain fall on his property to begin with. After all, if they claim the rain they should keep it off of his property!
In Eastern states as they were organized title to all the wildlife on the land was retained by the state governments and made available to the people. That's why in the newer Eastern states you can usually hunt on anyone's property, unless prohibited by another law (which will require no hunting posting), but in the older Eastern states you can't hunt anywhere unless you have explicit permission.
BTW, any property title lawyer will run the rights of ownership all the way back to the King of Spain if you want ~ and they don't go further than that.
Constitutionally here in Virginia all of us own the wild deer, squirrels and rabbits ~ but we can only go on someone's land to hunt with the owner's permission. In Indiana I not only owned all those animals, even the property owner couldn't take them all ~ or clear them out. BTW, it's always a courtesy to let a landowner know you are hunting on his land.
Everybody on Earth follows some sort of standard ~ in the United States we follow BOTH the big ones. That's cause were' HUGE.
Permaculture >>> to a large extent means edible landscaping. Meaning fewer ornamentals and more food plants on your property. Such as fruit and nut trees and vegetable garden. Maybe chickens and bees. Lots of freepers practice this on their property and so do I
I have friends who capture rainwater off their roof into barrels. They water their plants and trees with rainwater which they prefer to city water plus it is free
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