My dad used to tell of gunfights over water rights on the high plains when we lived there.
we live now in an area that sometimes gets real dry but we can put several deep wells in service if we need to.
What about those that need to drill a new well? Will they be denied a permit to drill it !?!
Just outside of Trinidad,CO on the mesa there have been people shot and killed over stealing irrigation water.
My grandfather used to tell the story of him pulling one of his neighbors (who happened to be drunk) out of a ditch. The guy was apparently diverting water to his box.
Lots of stories of people stealing water. I would not have taken the water commissioner job for all the tea in china.
MFO
The Baptist church dug themselves a fishing pond and cut off the creek that used to run behind our house. Several neighbors have tried to take them to court but they’re laughed out. The church is too big and steps on us little peons.
“My dad used to tell of gunfights over water rights on the high plains when we lived there.”
I’ve heard the same along the Gila River here in SW New Mexico. Some people felt more ‘entitled’ to the water out of the irrigation ditches during periods of drought, and would ‘borrow’ water when it wasn’t their turn. Such ended up in gun play on some occasions.
What a difference a few decades makes! People would shoot at others to ensure they received the water they were legally entitled to for their crops and livestock. Now days the environmentalists say a damn minnow is more deserving of the water and everybody throws up their hands in defeat! We have become pussified in the liberal lies of political correctness!
Well, in all fairness, not everybody has become pussified. The MEN that showed up to protect the Bundy ranch were anything but pussies. I’d say there must be something in the water that prevents men from building more water retention areas, prevents men from using that water flowing to the ocean so a minnow can swim in it, prevents men from saying “to hell with another choo choo, we’re building damns and desalinization plants”, but it can’t be in the water because they aren’t allowed anywhere near it anymore as they sit there watching acres and acres and acres of crops wither up and die.