Couple Forced to Destroy 40-Year-Old Pond On Their Own Property Because Govt Owns The Rainwater

Free Thought Project ^ | Claire Bernish

[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.”

[CharlesWayneCT]

Too many people want to control their neighbors.

[Hot Tabasco]

I live in Macomb Twp. and south of me is Clinton Twp. Along the Clinton River is a golf course which is basically a flood plain and any time we get prolonged rain, the river over flows and completely covers the golf course. I get a kick out of driving Clinton River rd. just to see how high the water gets on the course. I’ve often wondered if any carp or other fish get stranded on the greens once the water subsides.........LOL!

[Svartalfiar]

Here in Texas, people are billed or fined for drawing water from lakes that their property ajoins.

Yes, but there's a huge difference between drawing water from a public lake (especially in a state that has major droughts where lakes can be 20 feet below normal - statewide we were at maybe 50% of total capacity a couple years ago), and having a pond entirely on your own property.