For Our Next Trick....... Expect "Collecting Rainwater" permits !

[Jstpssng]

Regulatory Capture being what it is..... ^ all too common a situation.

Broad/vague laws, by nature subject to interpretation, seem ripe for abuse..... I'm thinking of an important Canadian case still before the courts as I type.... non-Ag related, so won't post further, except to say Canadian Mischief Trial should get you there.

Practically speaking, I fail to see how even hundreds of "farmers" irrigating an acre or 3 of land for crops will put much of a dent in non-desert aquifers. With food costs skyrocketing (no accident, and we are nowhere near done with that curve), I find the idea of having to jump through regulatory hoops AND pay more taxes (call it what it is) on land that you already pay taxes on disgusting.

IF there is an actual water shortage get the Big Consumers to cut back first, before beating on the peasants.

Rgds, D.

Water rights out west are a big deal... apparently it's like having gold under your land here.

 

[JasperFrank]

Never heard of this. And I'm right out side of Eugene, Or. So something else is going on here. There is a huge community of small farmers that have markets all over the state, and local food production is encouraged at the county and state levels. Some thing in this Vid isn't being mentioned or the narrative is intentionally, a misdirection.
That said, Oregon is a beautiful place to visit, enjoy your stay, but then you should all just go back home.

 

[1 Old Man]

Credit to Jasper Frank:
That said, Texas is a beautiful place to visit, enjoy your stay, but then you should all just go back home.

 

[3930dave]

Never heard of this. And I'm right out side of Eugene, Or. So something else is going on here. There is a huge community of small farmers that have markets all over the state, and local food production is encouraged at the county and state levels. Some thing in this Vid isn't being mentioned or the narrative is intentionally, a misdirection.
That said, Oregon is a beautiful place to visit, enjoy your stay, but then you should all just go back home.

I expect bias (any source), and when I bring up something like this topic, my usual wish is to be Totally Wrong, about what is going on.

There are usually lots of laws in place (that are often not enforced) in any jurisdiction.... worthwhile to know where the trends in enforcement are going, IMO at least.

Hopefully small farmers don't get displaced...

Rgds, D.

 

[CliffordK]

I will say that on a small farm manure can pile up very quickly. Now is it a problem, I don't know, but it is good to keep the pastures or garden green. But, one does need to look at the size of operation. Even a dozen farms with 20 cows may have less impact than a single farm with 200+ cows in a tiny corral. I don't know if it really makes a difference if your feedlot has a dirt floor or a concrete floor, although people tend to invest in concrete when rain is a problem.

The story mentioned Eugene. Now, when one looks at Oregon, there are several very distinct environments. And it is impossible to make a single law that cos all of them.

There is the coastal area. A bit cooler, and a lot of rain, and some salt.

Then the Willamette Valley. This is "Rainy Oregon". We get A LOT OF RAIN in the winter. As far as I can tell the aquifers are replenished every winter. Yet, we also have exceptionally dry summers with virtually no rain from mid June to mid September. The presenter mentioned Global Warming. There is a lot of reality there that one has to pay attention to. It may be that the summers are expanding to late May to early October. And that will make a difference.

And there is Eastern Oregon. It has agriculture, but also very desert like. For some reason most of the wheat farms are north of the Columbia, with very little wheat south of the Columbia. Eastern Oregon is the place where farms can do some damage to the underground water table, or even to rivers and streams.

It is pretty stupid to go after a small farmer near Eugene for water use violations. Although one might be able to store winter rainwater for use in the summer. Yet, we have water. That may change in the future, and one has to be prepared. Or, perhaps those changes are already here and many of us haven't noticed yet.

Whew, I know that parts of California has had issues with depleted groundwater and land subsidence. I don't believe that is happening in Oregon. But I don't know where our groundwater is actually moving, or how the Willamette Valley water impacts other aquifers.

Also, note that many Oregon farms have a tax "Farm Deferral", which requires them to have a certain gross income. Take away the income, and one loses the deferral, and may even have to pay back taxes.

A few years ago I started pulling water from a spring on my property. I tried to get water rights for my spring (about 1 GPM), and was just laughed away. My concern was that a neighbor would come in and do something to drain my spring such as installing a drainage pipe and just dumping all my water. So I wanted to protect it. There didn't seem to be any mechanism to do so.

 

[CliffordK]

There is a book called "Atlas of Oregon". First published in 1977, with a second edition in 2001. It is packed with unique maps about the state and the environment. I'll see if I can find a copy and try to make heads or tails out of the local water.

 

[3930dave]

Interesting break-down of the regions Clifford. Illustrates challenges, even crafting State-level laws.

Your second last paragraph, jumped-out.... Taxes are a huge motivator.

Link below, jump to about 8 minutes to start into the overview of their small farm. (Beginning is their motivation behind Prepping).

A well-managed small operation, IMO. No need to burden people like this, with huge infrastructure costs.

Rgds, D.

 

[Rockbadchild]

scary stuff... I never believed in this stuff (agenda and global control) but its been said, people are buying less and less the '' climate changed '' agenda so the next item on the list is water supply...I expected this and there is more to come this is the perfect way to control people... I filled a survey about the great lakes that was pushing to make them a protected water ways... you will see its coming.

 

[JasperFrank]

My deed has a clause that I can't "divert" any water from a natural seasonal or year round stream. It says nothing about rain water, roof top, cistern catching. There was a bit of a fight with some of the neighbors when a Pot Farm was created up the hill from me. Ground water is somewhat marginal in my area because there are sandstone layers that make wells hit or miss. The Pot Farm was not granted the permit for the two wells they wanted to put in. So they trucked water up our shared easement road, twice a week, and this lead to more conflict as to who should maintain said road with this heavy traffic that also included all the weekly propane trucks. The Pot Farm finally gave up and moved on. There is always another side to a story. And Oregon is really four completely different States in a sense. There is The Coast, The Valley, The Cascades and the Eastern Areas. Each have very different ways of looking at water rights.

 

[Hay Dude]

All the faculty lounge nut balls in charge of 3 letter agencies & bureaucracies are destroying the lives of self sufficient people outside of the cities and inside of the coasts.

Let’s stop with the pollyanish BS. It’s just that plain & simple.

They want us on the grid, mouths open to be spoon fed gubmit pablum, and paying exorbitant taxes.