Oregon man jailed for collecting rainwater
- Thread starter MikeA57
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Well I read about him allegedly diverting creek water into his lakes in one article but it never said that it was proven. In looking at the google map, I don't see any diversion. I see one runoff from the road that dumps into the green lake at the north end but other than that I just don't see anything that would be a creek that is running into any of the lakes or even anywhere near any of them. I agree, it's sticky and a levee breach could be bad. Pretty desolate area though...
flusher
Super Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2005
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- Sacramento
- Tractor
- Getting old. Sold the ranch. Sold the tractors. Moved back to the city.
Snow melt, runoff--if he can show that it comes entirely from his 170 acres, then maybe he has a case. If he's collecting snowmelt/runoff that's coming from neighboring land and is running through his land onto other neighboring land, then he may be violating local riparian law. Here in CA you can get sideways with the authorities if you interfere with the natural flow of water across your land to the detriment of neighbors downstream.
Iplayfarmer
Super Member
Water rights are life and death here in the arid west... Literally! A perfect example is the drought in the midwest this year. My friends and nieghbors would be in that situation every year if it weren't for irrigation and an organized system of allocating water. Water rights in Idaho are prioritized by how old the water right is, and some people own water that only flows every 10 years or so. In some instances the canal board has more authority than the local city and county governments.
Imagine being the guy who has bought and maintained the right to pull water out of the river only when the river is at its highest. Now imagine being that guy and knowing that the reason the water isn't high is because other guys who haven't paid for the right are stockpiling water on their land.
We had an interesting example of water rights dispute here a few years back. Water rights owners in the Twin Falls area accused farmers in the high desert of stealing their water via the wells that they had drilled for irrigation. The reasoning was that the wells were pulling water from the aquifer that would have otherwise flowed to the Thousand Springs area that feeds the river that the Twin Falls people were previously using for irrigation.
In my agronomy classes in college I had a number of professors explain that the food supply for the population of the world will be limited by the supply of water long before it's limited by available arable land. I admit that we don't have enough information about the particular case in the article, but I encourage all of you to realize just how essential the fair and organized allocation of water is to the life and livlihood of those of us who live out west.
Imagine being the guy who has bought and maintained the right to pull water out of the river only when the river is at its highest. Now imagine being that guy and knowing that the reason the water isn't high is because other guys who haven't paid for the right are stockpiling water on their land.
We had an interesting example of water rights dispute here a few years back. Water rights owners in the Twin Falls area accused farmers in the high desert of stealing their water via the wells that they had drilled for irrigation. The reasoning was that the wells were pulling water from the aquifer that would have otherwise flowed to the Thousand Springs area that feeds the river that the Twin Falls people were previously using for irrigation.
In my agronomy classes in college I had a number of professors explain that the food supply for the population of the world will be limited by the supply of water long before it's limited by available arable land. I admit that we don't have enough information about the particular case in the article, but I encourage all of you to realize just how essential the fair and organized allocation of water is to the life and livlihood of those of us who live out west.
forgeblast
Elite Member
Water rights in Idaho are prioritized by how old the water right is, and some people own water that only flows every 10 years or so. Wow that a much different system, I can see how that would cause endless issues.
Stone Craft
New member
There must be more to the story. Water is getting ready to be a huge deal. I live in an area (Dodge City, KS) that the Arkansas River Once flowed. I **** built on Truman resevorior in Colorado damned up the river, and there hasn't been water in the river for over 30 years. It's just a sand bed that people drive for wheelers in. Because this is such a dry area anyway, farmers have irrigation circles everywhere. Every quarter of ground. On top of that we are in the heart of the cattle industry, and it takes a lot of water for a few million cattle. Wells are drying up now, even the cities wells. I could really see in 10-20 years, the city dying just becasue there is now water to drink. This will have a huge impact on the cattle industry, and a ripple in the corn markets. As a step to combat against the water shortage the city was granted money to build a lake. It is not filling up fast, and I know a lot of people will ponds bigger than it. Water is something that everyone will need to be thinking about.
- I know a Senator that said there were talks in the house to regulate private wells, and charge for the water being pumped out of them.
- Rivers that I have never seen dry in another part of the state are close. Fracing for oil takes a lot of water so I'm told. Oil companies are using water sources that directly effect the downstream current of these rivers and the government does nothing.
I am not surprised by this guy's bad luck. At some point I'm sure you will have to have a permit to dig a pond. A permit that you won't be able to obtain.
- I know a Senator that said there were talks in the house to regulate private wells, and charge for the water being pumped out of them.
- Rivers that I have never seen dry in another part of the state are close. Fracing for oil takes a lot of water so I'm told. Oil companies are using water sources that directly effect the downstream current of these rivers and the government does nothing.
I am not surprised by this guy's bad luck. At some point I'm sure you will have to have a permit to dig a pond. A permit that you won't be able to obtain.
chkntrktr
Bronze Member
A few years back we visited my wife's uncle in Tri-Cities are of WA state. The winter before that there hadn't been a lot of snowfall in the mountains so they were under water restrictions. I don't remember all they told me about their water rights, but I do remember that a lot of people were angry that they couldn't get as much water as they wanted. It was an experience for me because we haven't had that many years that were really really dry, although we usually have a rainfall deficit of some kind at year's end.
I did notice that yard grass was a big deal for them, they watered it and mowed at least two times a week and sometimes three. I suppose a lot of people on here understand that.
As Stone Craft said water is something that people need to be thinking about. Even here in my area of the south, creeks don't run as full as they once did. I don't know if it is from water that would have fed the springs that feed the creeks being pumped out from wells, or from the effect on groundwater from several dry years.
I did notice that yard grass was a big deal for them, they watered it and mowed at least two times a week and sometimes three. I suppose a lot of people on here understand that.
As Stone Craft said water is something that people need to be thinking about. Even here in my area of the south, creeks don't run as full as they once did. I don't know if it is from water that would have fed the springs that feed the creeks being pumped out from wells, or from the effect on groundwater from several dry years.
