Posted on 02/25/2014 7:08:57 PM PST by PaulCruz2016
Near the end of 2013, a Florida official decided Robin Speronis was doing something too strange to tolerate: She was trying to live off the grid.
Off the Grid News reports:
Speronis has been fighting the city of Cape Coral since November when a code enforcement officer tried to evict her from her home for living without utilities. The city contends that Speronis violated the International Property Maintenance Code by relying on rain water instead of the city water system and solar panels instead of the electric grid.
And now, a judge has ruled that living independently of the city’s water supply is illegal. “She must hook up to the water system, although officials acknowledge she does not have to use it,” says Off the Grid News.
It’s not really clear why it’s illegal to live off rainwater — it just is. The law doesn’t understand, essentially, how it would even be possible to live without city-provided water. The fact that water regularly comes out of the sky is apparently not compelling.
In the little town near me BP put in a city water system as part of a settlement over a gasoline leak some years ago. Once the deal was done the people found that part of the agreement was that the wells would have to be destroyed rather than capped.
One family has refused to destroy their well. They are hooked up to the city water but say they don’t want to use it for things like watering grass, washing dishes or clothes etc. Basically a deal was made that all the families would be using a certain amount of water and this one family is trying to keep their costs down so the city is suing them and trying to force them to destroy the well.
“Is she connected to the city sewer system? If so, she needs to be connected to the water system as well.”
Why is that? I don’t see the logic here. I’ve been in houses with a well and septic system, a well and city sewer, and a house with city water and a septic system.
But it should be the citizens choice, IMHO. Just say’n
Good thing she didn’t try to quit the post office...
All they care about is the fee so get hooked up.LOL!
At least we have a well and don’t use city garbage.
That depends on how widespread it became, a city could be dealing with mass epidemics also, public schools with thousands of pupils could see problems from desease.
What I read earlier was about the city finally capping off her sewer, one person is a rebel, and most of us here, and myself, could pull all this off, but it isn’t hard to see what would happen if this became a money saving trend in poor parts of Detroit, for instance.
My point, is that I would like to see some serious discussion on this, not just the first reaction that most of us have.
Water and sewage are just about the most serious things in our city lives, whether we know it or not.
What do they plan to do with people who have leach fields and well water systems like my family has?Force you to pay for city water systems?No way!They tried but the town said NO WAY!
It’s not really clear why it’s illegal to live off rainwater — it just is. The law doesn’t understand, essentially, how it would even be possible to live without city-provided water. The fact that water regularly comes out of the sky is apparently not compelling.
"If the law supposes that then the law is a ass, a idiot!" Mr. Bumble
In most cases your “water bill” also includes the fact that the city is treating your sewage as well. I suppose she could flush her toilets with buckets of rain water, but rainfall is not always reliable. If she has some kind of composting toilet or her own septic system, then I would say she doesn’t need to be connected to the city’s water.
PING!
You might want to see this
It’s 500 feet here.
If they can mandate you buy health insurance they can mandate you buy anything at all.
Fhat the Wuck?
Sewage is the issue, and for good reason.
When we had a terrorist scare about our water supply in the mid 80's, my boss was taking his "fish in a bag" to all the towers and reservoirs until we could get better security in place.
;-)
Not sure what this means.
>> “Not sure what this means.” <<
.
It means that judges should have their mouths sewed shut!
.
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