Thirty days in jail for catching rainwater?

[Michaelangelica]

Until recently it was illegal to have rain water tanks in my shire/council area too!

At the center of the case was a 1925 state law giving the water commission exclusive rights to all the water in Big Butte Creek, its tributaries and Big Butte Springs -- the core of the city's municipal water supply.

In court filings Harrington had argued that he's not diverting water from the creek system, merely capturing rainwater and snowmelt from his 172 acres along Crowfoot Road.

http://news.opb.org/article/rainwate...sentence_fine/

[Pakanohida]

Until recently it was illegal to have rain water tanks in my shire/council area too!


http://news.opb.org/article/rainwate...sentence_fine/

I have friends that live 1 town over from where this occured. Some odd things to put this into perspective.

Yes, OR has rainwater laws, but they were updated state wide & we have this handy thing to go by.

http://www.bcd.oregon.gov/pdf/3660.pdf

It is a 20 page guide on how to.

Then I also found this:
Oregon
Since Oregon allows for alternate methods of construction of rainwater harvesting systems, the Oregon Building Codes Division (BCD) created methods for both potable and non-potable systems. Oregon Revised Statute §455.060 Senate Bill 79, passed in 2009, directs the BCD to increase energy efficiency, by including rainwater harvesting, in new and repaired buildings.


http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/...arvesting.aspx




However, what really vexes me is that this area of Oregon is trying desperately to be a big urban center, and yet this area, where I have friends living, cannot capture rain water, cannot grow any kind of food in the front lawn (what little they have, it is a 1m by 1m plot). Almost no recycling programs as well.

[Michaelangelica]

However, what really vexes me is that this area of Oregon is trying desperately to be a big urban center, and yet this area, where I have friends living, cannot capture rain water, cannot grow any kind of food in the front lawn (what little they have, it is a 1m by 1m plot). Almost no recycling programs as well.

Sad and amazing, i suppose they can have an AK47 and a 600 bullet magazine through?

[annette]

This article contends that it applies to swales as well.

http://www.naturalnews.com/036615_Or...maculture.html

[Ludi]

Rainwater harvesting from roofs is allowed by Oregon law: http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/...arvesting.aspx

Some surface water uses don't require a permit:

"Exempt Uses
water uses that do not require a permit
Some uses of water do not require a water right. For surface water these include: natural springs which do not flow off the property on which they orginate, stock watering, fire control, forest management, and the collection of rainwater. Ground water exempt uses include: stock watering, less than one-half acre of lawn and garden watering, and domestic water uses of no more than 15,000 gallons per day. Consult the Department for more information about exempt uses." www1.wrd.state.or.us/pdfs/​infosheet2.law.pdf

I think that naturalnews article is a bit of a right-wing panic fest.

[Pakanohida]

Sad and amazing, i suppose they can have an AK47 and a 600 bullet magazine through?

OR has the most liberal gun laws in the US. In Oregon, you can legally fire a machine gun, shoot a flamethrower, even launch a few grenades as long as you do it safely and with registered equipment. However, when you buy such things you need lots of money to legally buy, & register the weapon, local law enforcement runs a background check, signs off on it, and then the Feds do the exact same process of background checks making sure you have a clean record.

And for the record, I am not saying I agree or disagree, not saying I own or don't own, just stating how it is here.

[mischief]

Yeah yeah

[Michaelangelica]

I saw that a US High (Supreme) Court Judge had voted to make rocket launchers legal under the second amendment!
Surely the 'right to bare arms' thing was written when "arms" meant muskets not rocket launchers and AK47 with obscene magazines.

I fail to understand the Yank fear of the Federal Government. Surely Roosevelt showed that without the Feds you would have Wall St running the show and all would be screwed? I guess many (Republicans?) long for those pre Roosevelt days?

[Ludi]

I thought that garden was in Canada....

[Benjy136]

Mick;

I made the same error as you, thinking I understood your culture enough to make an inane comment (sympathetic) and was very politely reproved for it. What is not understood by many is that our current government is very comfortably in bed with the banks and wall street. They exempt themselves from the laws they expect us to adhere to and are systematicly removing our "God given" rights. They are trashing our constitution , which made us the most prosperous country in the world. Sure there were tyrants among us who rode roughshod over others, but that's true of any country, but our "poor" are quite well-to-do compared to the poor in other countries. Our present generation consists of over forty percent who think the government is a cornicopia with goodys for any who would like to sit on their arse and complain. Our current laws protect the criminals and persecute any who seek justice. They punish any ambitious successful person by saddling the businesses with regulations that Solomon would scratch his head over, and then tell them that they didn't make it on their own (Obama's words). He claimed that their success happened because of mostly Government help and they should share their wealth with the less fortunate.(who had the same access to the "government help". My words) and as if that isn't enough, the working man (as opposed of the sit on his arse and collect it man) MUST pay into a government run ponzi scheme created by FDR and dipped into constantly as a slush fund, called Social Security. Now the bloody liberal dems say it's the duty of the hard-working to not only support the constantly complaining "losers", but to replinish the constantly raided slush fund. Yes I am a conservative who believes that if the present government, Bush included had let the capitolist system work and let the "too big to fail" banks fail, we would have had a catstrophic depression, but we would have bounced back. The unsuccessful companies would have naturally been replaced by a "better mousetrap". Without government intervention banks wouldn't have been FORCED to make unrecoverable loans to "the poor minorities" Now the latest news is a third attempt to revitalize may go into effect sometime next month. This is supposed to perk up the ecconomy just long enough for Obama to claim that his programs are working (for the election in Nov.)

I didn't mean to get back into polotics. but there is a reason the constitution gave us the "Right to bear arms" and it has to do with our current administration's effort to take our ""last resort" means to defend our homes and families. If the NRA had not been fighting the government for that right, the only guns in our population would belong to criminals. We are being forced, as it is, to hand over, in one form of tax or another, over half of our earnings to our "protectors", and the more people the government can "give" that money to, the more "financial slaves" will be behind it when all our rights are gone. Only slaves are not afforded rights, and only freemen can make their own choices. The "handouts" may have already sealed our coming election. Why would the millions of reciepients take a chance of losing their sacred cow status by voting out their "Savior"?

The picture shown in the previous blog of the front yard garden being banned is a good example of bureaucratic stupidity and has nothing to do with the other picture which would have also been banned if they had their "druthers". Our present government is promoting hatred for anyone who is not content to let the government "support" them, and making it more and more dificult for those with any ambition to become successful and thereby "create" employment. As to our gun laws, by forcing registery of all firearms (which most criminals can skirt) they know who to go after first, labling them terrorists to be eliminated. History has a way of repeating itself if we don't learn from it. Our schools, by and large, are , under the thumb of pseudo-socialist government, teaching marxist and/or facist garbage to both our young schoolchildren and college students. This was done in the early days (Brownshirts) of the nazi regime. The people over there had no Idea how bad it would get until it was too late. The Russians had no Idea how bad it would get under Stalin. Our President already bypassed congress and bribed our representatives to get his way. When his big bill was brought to the Supreme Court, he did all in his power to sway their opinion, and succeeded in keeping the bill law. I wholehearted agree with pakanohida that our country is in trouble, but not from the conservatives. We are not yet where our president wants us, or I wouldn't be able to write and send this. Of course I could find my next Social Security check (which I have contributed to for over 50 years)"Lost in the mail"

Just an old timer who has seen it happen before, (Can't happen here?)
Ben