Oregon's govt. control freaks - Man Gets Prison Sentence For Collecting Rainwater On His Property

Collecting rainwater on your own property can now lead to jail time, as proven by a man from Oregon who was sentenced to prison for doing just that. Who owns the rain? The US government, apparently so it seems.

“They’ve just gotten to be big bullies and if you just lay over and die and give up, that just makes them bigger bullies. So, we as Americans, we need to stand on our constitutional rights, on our rights as citizens and hang tough. This is a good country, we’ll prevail,” he said.

The court has given Harrington two weeks to report to the Jackson County Jail to begin serving his sentence.



According to Oregon water laws, all water is publicly owned. Therefore, anyone who wants to store any type of water on their property must first obtain a permit from state water managers.

Harrington said he applied for three permits to legally house reservoirs for storm and snow water runoff on his property. One of the “reservoirs” had been on his property for 37 years, he said.

Though the state Water Resources Department initially approved his permits in 2003, the state – and a state court — ultimately reversed the decision.

“They issued me my permits. I had my permits in hand and they retracted them just arbitrarily, basically. They took them back and said ‘No, you can’t have them,’ so I’ve been fighting it ever since,” Harrington told CNSNews.com.
http://yournewswire.com/man-gets-prison-sentence-for-collecting-rainwater-on-his-own-property/

Poor guy needs to move to Texas & out of that liberal shit stain. Texas doesn't screw with you here. Quite the contrary, rain water collection has become very popular with new building starts and folks that want clean, pure water especially in central Texas, Austin area, AND, you don't need ask permission and pay permits to sustain dumb ass office jobs.

Uncle Ben

wow this is bullshit

Diabolical666 said:

wow this is bullshit

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It is mainly in western states. It is in how the states were settled. Eastern states you tend to have the right to collect water.

Its stupid, you should be able to collect rain water anywhere.

Edit: I read somewhere that it was due to how states were settled and mainly Spanish law. From the chart posted below that may not be accurate.

Uncle Ben said:

Collecting rainwater on your own property can now lead to jail time, as proven by a man from Oregon who was sentenced to prison for doing just that. Who owns the rain? The US government, apparently so it seems.

“They’ve just gotten to be big bullies and if you just lay over and die and give up, that just makes them bigger bullies. So, we as Americans, we need to stand on our constitutional rights, on our rights as citizens and hang tough. This is a good country, we’ll prevail,” he said.

The court has given Harrington two weeks to report to the Jackson County Jail to begin serving his sentence.

According to Oregon water laws, all water is publicly owned. Therefore, anyone who wants to store any type of water on their property must first obtain a permit from state water managers.

Harrington said he applied for three permits to legally house reservoirs for storm and snow water runoff on his property. One of the “reservoirs” had been on his property for 37 years, he said.

Though the state Water Resources Department initially approved his permits in 2003, the state – and a state court — ultimately reversed the decision.

“They issued me my permits. I had my permits in hand and they retracted them just arbitrarily, basically. They took them back and said ‘No, you can’t have them,’ so I’ve been fighting it ever since,” Harrington told CNSNews.com.
http://yournewswire.com/man-gets-prison-sentence-for-collecting-rainwater-on-his-own-property/

Poor guy needs to move to Texas & out of that liberal shit stain. Texas doesn't screw with you here. Quite the contrary, rain water collection has become very popular with new building starts and folks that want clean, pure water especially in central Texas, Austin area, AND, you don't need ask permission and pay permits to sustain dumb ass office jobs.

Uncle Ben

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Hey Ben,

I posted about this awhile back. The democratic leadership in Oregon is fucked up for sure. An BarryO appointed judge decided a cake was worth 150K and another BarryO Oregon appointed judge decided that the ranchers didn't spend enough time in jail so they kill a man for standing up to the out of control liberal shit that is trying to prove a point for some reason.

Here in Hawaii the only water I get for my house is rain water. I have a 10k gallon storage water catchment system and most of the Island is that way. So maybe Trump will wake up the common sense people across the nation and have a war against stupid liberal people in every state. TRUMP!

Water tables in states west of OK and TX are in danger of depletion.

The government fears that if one person does it, that many people will begin to do it. If everyone is collecting their own water, the water tables will become depleted.

Whether its right or wrong is up for debate, but this is the reason.

My personal opinion on the matter is that you should be able to freely collect your own water. It's the government's and public utilities fault for not managing water more properly. But not much you can do about population growth.

But it sounds like he was sent to prison for breaking the law, as he simply needed a permit for collecting the water.

nitro harley said:

Hey Ben,

I posted about this awhile back. The democratic leadership in Oregon is fucked up for sure. An BarryO appointed judge decided a cake was worth 150K and another BarryO Oregon appointed judge decided that the ranchers didn't spend enough time in jail so they kill a man for standing up to the out of control liberal shit that is trying to prove a point for some reason.

Here in Hawaii the only water I get for my house is rain water. I have a 10k gallon storage water catchment system and most of the Island is that way. So maybe Trump will wake up the common sense people across the nation and have a war against stupid liberal people in every state. TRUMP!

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Sorry, I missed it.

Yeah, Oregon is pretty fucked up & we all know about our loony, tawdry Prez. I've been to Hawaii many times. You must live on the east side of an island?

I got 2 bids for a whole house system, one for $32k the other $35K, 20,000 gal. tank. Too expensive although I could save a lot by doing some of the work myself. Am looking at a whole house RO for $5K.

Have unlimited water from 2 wells, one even producing 150 gpm but it's very hard with a TDS of 830 ppm +.

see4 said:

Water tables in states west of OK and TX are in danger of depletion.

The government fears that if one person does it, that many people will begin to do it. If everyone is collecting their own water, the water tables will become depleted.

Whether its right or wrong is up for debate, but this is the reason.

My personal opinion on the matter is that you should be able to freely collect your own water. It's the government's and public utilities fault for not managing water more properly. But not much you can do about population growth.

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Oregon is on the other side of the rockies so west of TX and OK only goes so far. I believe this year there has been record rain fall and a enormous amount of snow pack in Oregon so what you said doesn't really fall into the common sense category, kinda like the liberal thought process in Oregon. IMO

I like your bad ass sig, TRUMP is crushing it. right fucking on. TRUMP!

see4 said:

But it sounds like he was sent to prison for breaking the law, as he simply needed a permit for collecting the water.

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He had one as shown in my post.

By law Oregon is unrestricted. Pretty stupid as it all returns to the ground via septic or thru a treatment plant.



http://www.ncsl.org/research/environment-and-natural-resources/rainwater-harvesting.aspx

Uncle Ben said:

Sorry, I missed it.

Yeah, Oregon is pretty fucked up & we all know about our loony, tawdry Prez. I've been to Hawaii many times. You must live on the east side of an island?

I got 2 bids for a whole house system, one for $32k the other $35K, 20,000 gal. tank. Too expensive although I could save a lot by doing some of the work myself. Am looking at a whole house RO for $5K.

Have unlimited water from 2 wells, one even producing 150 gpm but it's very hard with a TDS of 830 ppm +.

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I live on the south east side of the big island and we get about 50 inches per year. Every now and then I order a truck load of water if I am trying to keep my grass green. Just this year I decided to go with a desert type land scape with rock so I won't need as much water and it looks nice and I like the low maintenance if I go back to Oregon for a few months. Then when I come back after a few months I just pull some weeds and spray round up.

nitro harley said:

I live on the south east side of the big island and we get about 50 inches per year. Every now and then I order a truck load of water if I am trying to keep my grass green. Just this year I decided to go with a desert type land scape with rock so I won't need as much water and it looks nice and I like the low maintenance if I go back to Oregon for a few months. Then when I come back after a few months I just pull some weeds and spray round up.

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Macadamia and coffee growers (and cock fighting rings).

Uncle Ben said:

Macadamia and coffee growers (and cock fighting rings).

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Pretty much, thats whats happening. I went to a chicken match a week ago, but its not my thing really, interesting but I will stick with fishing. Just last week I had a world class day at south point fishing with my kite set up. I hooked up a Marlin and fought it for about 45 minutes and got it up to the cliff and the hook was snagged on the very end of its bill and I couldn't get the slide gaff into him and the hook ended up pulling out, but it swam away to fight another day. Then the very next bait a hundred pound sail fish hit my bait and I fought it for around 45 minutes and landed it. It took three of us to pull it up the cliff and it actually tasted pretty good on the barbecue, then I went and got a smoker and made Hawaiian candy out of the rest of it.

Two bill fish from shore in one day was pretty world class fishing. I don't know of anywhere else in the world a guy can fish from shore and land game fish like that so we are stoked. TRUMP!

nitro harley said:

Oregon is on the other side of the rockies so west of TX and OK only goes so far. I believe this year there has been record rain fall and a enormous amount of snow pack in Oregon so what you said doesn't really fall into the common sense category, kinda like the liberal thought process in Oregon. IMO

I like your bad ass sig, TRUMP is crushing it. right fucking on. TRUMP!

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I suspect you don't understand that concept of water tables, aquifers and water collection. That's ok, Republicans like yourself have a hard time grasping the simplest of concepts.

Your thought process:
- Record rainfall this year = no water problems.
- Record snowfall = no global warming/change.

Your brain can only fathom simple concepts, so no need for me to explain any further.

Yes Trump is crushing it in the Republican primary. Interestingly, according to your beloved Faux Noose, they have Hillary winning 46% - 42% with 3% margin of error. Not enough error for Trump to win.

My bet is still on the table big man. If Trump becomes President, I leave RIU forever. If he loses, you leave forever. Take my bet?

see4 said:

I suspect you don't understand that concept of water tables, aquifers and water collection. That's ok, Republicans like yourself have a hard time grasping the simplest of concepts.

Your thought process:
- Record rainfall this year = no water problems.
- Record snowfall = no global warming/change.

Your brain can only fathom simple concepts, so no need for me to explain any further.

Yes Trump is crushing it in the Republican primary. Interestingly, according to your beloved Faux Noose, they have Hillary winning 46% - 42% with 3% margin of error. Not enough error for Trump to win.

My bet is still on the table big man. If Trump becomes President, I leave RIU forever. If he loses, you leave forever. Take my bet?

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TRUMP! will crush Hillary, imo You have the bet backwards as far as I am concerned. I told you and I think Rolli like it. that if Trump wins I will leave 30 days afterwards. And I will honor that very easily because there would be no sense in hanging around watching a bunch of liberals pop like ZITS day after day. TRUMP!

is that one of those crazy state laws


like in Arkansas its legal to fuck your mom or some shit ..while your siblings watch or some shit


yeah ..or sum shit

nitro harley said:

TRUMP! will crush Hillary, imo You have the bet backwards as far as I am concerned. I told you and I think Rolli like it. that if Trump wins I will leave 30 days afterwards. And I will honor that very easily because there would be no sense in hanging around watching a bunch of liberals pop like ZITS day after day. TRUMP!

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How about this... If Trump wins you leave 30 days afterwards. If he loses, you leave immediately. Sound good?

Don't confuse rollitup with liking your comment, he was not "liking" your terms, he was "liking" the fact that you would leave. We all hope you do.

see4 said:

How about this... If Trump wins you leave 30 days afterwards. If he loses, you leave immediately. Sound good?

Don't confuse rollitup with liking your comment, he was not "liking" your terms, he was "liking" the fact that you would leave. We all hope you do.

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Thats why I don't trust you. Your new deal doesn't have you leaving at all, just as I imagined. TRUMP!

ok I'm on the side of why do you need a permit to collect rain water ? It's rain...nobody owns it

Snopes says this story is almost entirely false
http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/rainwater.asp

Harrington stored and used water illegally by placing dams across channels on his property and preventing the flow of water out of these artificial reservoirs without obtaining a water right permit. The height of each dam varies; two dams stand about ten feet tall and the third stands about 20 feet tall. The total amount of water collected behind these dams totals about 40 acre feet; enough to fill almost 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools. These man-made reservoirs feature boat docks, boats, and were stocked by Harrington with trout and Bluegill for recreational fishing.

The state first identified Harrington's illegal water use more than ten years ago and initiated enforcement action to discontinue his illegal use of water. After numerous attempts by OWRD and the Watermaster to achieve voluntary compliance, the Department enlisted the assistance of the Oregon State Police in 2002. Citations were issued, and Harrington pleaded guilty to several violations. He was assessed a nominal fine and ordered to drain the three reservoirs, which he did. However, Harrington again closed the headgates in 2004 and refilled the reservoirs. As a result, OWRD and the Oregon State Police submitted reports to the Jackson County District Attorney's Office alleging additional violations of Oregon water law. That office filed misdemeanor charges against Harrington, and in 2008 he pled guilty to one count. He was issued another fine, placed on one year probation, and was again ordered to drain the reservoirs.

nitro harley said:

Thats why I don't trust you. Your new deal doesn't have you leaving at all, just as I imagined. TRUMP!

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If Trump wins I leave, that part of the bet is still on the table. I can't help the fact you're a total fucking moron and are completely incapable of comprehending even the most simplest of things.