Man sentenced to jail for collecting rainwater in Oregon

https://rt.com/usa/news/rain-water-harrington-oregon-439/

by zoowar • 14 years ago

11 12 14 years ago

rt.com

MattSayar2• 14 years ago

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

hudibras2• 14 years ago

A $1500 fine and a month in jail is hardly cruel or unusual.

MattSayar2• 14 years ago

I feel it's excessive for collecting what is essentially free.

hudibras2• 14 years ago

Water rights issues can seem outrageous at first blush, but there are good, logical reasons for them. For example, suppose this guy filled up his ponds with a garden hose from the farm's plumbing. He wouldn't expect to get that water for free, even though the equivalent amount of rainwater fell on his property.

But more importantly, the fact that he doesn't have water rights to his property is factored into the price he paid when he bought the property and is also factored into his taxes every year. His property is worth less because it doesn't come with water rights and he knew that when he bought it for that reduced price. For him to now try to keep the water that he didn't pay for is a laughable claim.

alanhenry• 14 years ago

After my initial outrage at the title, I found this comment to the actual article perhaps more telling than the article itself:

"Geographically, this is southern Oregon, near Medford; not the North Cascades. That part of the state simply dosen't recieve the amount of rain annually that Oregon is "known for". Eight acre feet of snow melt and rain waterannualy to fill those ponds, that's impossable. He's not filling from his well or tapping localized springs on his property, this guy divertied water flowing thought his property which feeds a tributary creek that supplies the city of Medford with it's potable water. Geeze can the truth be told once and a while? He admidted to doing just that some years ago. He's free to "store" all the rain water he pleases; which will likely evoporate by mid June."

Aside from the defensive tone, it looks like it's not that he's just innocently collecting water falling from the sky here, he's actually diverted natural resources that happen to flow through his property to suit his own needs because he wants ponds. That's a really important point that was left out of the article (glossed over, at best.)

bunderbunder• 14 years ago

According to another source (http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201208...), he's created three water reservoirs by constructing two 10-foot dams and one 20-foot dam.

Calling it "collecting rainwater" implies that he's just filling up a plastic barrel from a downspout. A more accurate phrase might be "disrupting the watershed."

kenthorvath• 14 years ago

Anyone else getting an invalid certificate from Moscow on this site?

jack-r-abbit• 14 years ago

Here is the CNS News story that this one references. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/oregon-man-sentenced-30-days...

It has more info... including the guy admitting that he has dams for collecting the water. He even was previously given 3 years probation and ordered to open the water gates. He did... and then shortly after his probation ended, he closed them again. I think there is a lot more to this story than this one sensational head line.

I suspect if he had just found a spot on his land away from rivers, creeks, streams, etc and just dug a big pit for rain to collect in he would have been fine. It seems this is not what he did.

ChuckMcM• 14 years ago

Bogus headline. For those of you who haven't lived on the West Coast or read up on issues with water ("Cadillac Desert" is a very accessible) Consequently there are always 'water rights' associated with parcels. Either you have them or you don't when you buy the land. This guy doesn't have rights to the water going through his property, but he is diverting the water for his own use anyway.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Cadillac-Desert-American-Disappearing-...

wkdown• 14 years ago

Why is this on Hacker News?

Man sentenced to jail for collecting rainwater in Oregon

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