Oregon Man Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail -- for Collecting Rainwater

Started by rick91351, July 27, 2012, 10:04:51 AM

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rick91351

As with most headlines there is more to the story.  Is he guilty or not?  You be the judge.


Oregon Man Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail -- for Collecting Rainwater on His
Property
(CNSNews.com)

A rural Oregon man was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail and over $1,500 in fines because he had three reservoirs on his property to collect and use rainwater.

Gary Harrington of Eagle Point, Ore., says he plans to appeal his conviction in Jackson County (Ore.) Circuit Court on nine misdemeanor charges under a 1925 law for having what state water managers called "three illegal reservoirs" on his property – and for filling the reservoirs with rainwater and snow runoff.

"The government is bullying," Harrington told CNSNews.com in an interview Thursday.  "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.  Harrington said the case first began in 2002, when state water managers told him there were complaints about the three "reservoirs" – ponds – on his more than 170 acres of land.  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.

The case, he said, is centered on a 1925 law which states that the city of Medford holds exclusive rights to "all core sources of water" in the Big Butte Creek watershed and its tributaries.

"Way back in 1925 the city of Medford got a unique withdrawal that withdrew all -- supposedly all -- the water out of a single basin and supposedly for the benefit of the city of Medford," Harrington told CNSNews.com.  Harrington told CNSNews.com, however, that the 1925 law doesn't mention anything about colleting rainwater or snow melt -- and he believes that he has been falsely accused.  "The withdrawal said the stream and its tributaries. It didn't mention anything about rainwater and it didn't mention anything about snow melt and it didn't mention anything about diffused water, but yet now, they're trying to expand that to include that rain water and they're using me as the goat to do it,"

But Tom Paul, administrator of the Oregon Water Resources Department, claims that Harrington has been violating the state's water use law by diverting water from streams running into the Big Butte River.  "The law that he is actually violating is not the 1925 provision, but it's Oregon law that says all of the water in the state of Oregon is public water and if you want to use that water, either to divert it or to store it, you have to acquire a water right from the state of Oregon before doing that activity,"
Paul told CNSNews.com.  Yet Paul admitted the 1925 law does apply because, he said, Harrington constructed dams to block a tributary to the Big Butte, which Medford uses for its water supply.
"There are dams across channels, water channels where the water would normally flow if it were not for the dam and so those dams are stopping the water from flowing in the channel and storing it- holding it so it cannot flow downstream," Paul told CNSNews.com.

Harrington, however, argued in court that that he is not diverting water from Big Butte Creek, but the dams capturing the rainwater and snow runoff – or "diffused water" – are on his own property and that therefore the runoff does not fall under the jurisdiction of the state water managers, nor does it not violate the 1925 act.

In 2007, a Jackson County Circuit Court judge denied Harrington's permits and found that he had illegally "withdrawn the water at issue from appropriation other than for the City of Medford." according to Paul, Harrington entered a guilty plea at the time, received three years probation and was ordered to open up the water gates.  "A very short period of time following the expiration of his probation, he once again closed the gates and re-filled the reservoirs," Paul told CNSNews.com. "So, this has been going on for some time and I think frankly the court felt that Mr. Harrington was not getting the message and decided that they'd already given him probation once and required him to open the gates and he refilled his reservoirs and it was business as usual for him, so I think the court wanted -- it felt it needed -- to give a stiffer penalty to get Mr. Harrington's attention."

In two weeks, if unsuccessful in his appeals, Harrington told CNSNews.com that he will report to the Jackson County Jail to serve his sentence.  "I follow the rules. If I'm mandated to report, I'm going to report. Of course, I'm going to do what it takes in the meantime to prevent that, but if I'm not
successful, I'll be there," Harrington said.  But Harrington also said that he will never stop fighting the government on this issue.  "When something is wrong, you just, as an American citizen, you have to put your foot down and say, 'This is wrong; you just can't take away anymore of my rights and from here on in, I'm going to fight it."
Proverbs 24:3-5 Through wisdom is an house builded; an by understanding it is established.  4 And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.  5 A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.

Squirl

Quote from: rick91351 on July 27, 2012, 10:04:51 AM
...Harrington entered a guilty plea...

That says it all to me.  You are not guilty in my book, unless you have sworn under oath in a court of law that you are.


Woodsrule

I am squarely on the side of Mr. Harrington. All the water is owned by the STATE of Oregon? How creepy does that sound? So, if you want to collect rainwater or snow runoff, you need some faceless STATE official to do so? What's next - The STATE owns all of the oxygen, sunlight, organic matter, etc....? And, just because he pled guilty in court does not make him guilty. Many folks have pled guilty to remove the crushing burden of overzealous public officials from their lives.

But Tom Paul, administrator of the Oregon Water Resources Department, claims that Harrington has been violating the state's water use law by diverting water from streams running into the Big Butte River.  "The law that he is actually violating is not the 1925 provision, but it's Oregon law that says all of the water in the state of Oregon is public water and if you want to use that water, either to divert it or to store it, you have to acquire a water right from the state of Oregon before doing that activity,"

Yep, all the water is the STATE's, not yours, so please beg us for the use of it. Unbelievable.

rick91351

When this article caught my eye I was hoping it was litigation to explore in Oregon do you have the right to collect rain water from buildings you own or a catchment structure.  Because if it occurs in Oregon, Idaho or Washington it will most likely effect the other states.     

Welcome to the simple yet complex water laws of the northwest.  I do not like the wording owns - yet they chose to use it in this case.   A better way to look at the issue is not so much ownership of the water.  The state must be the vehicle that controls who uses the water.  This is done by recorded water rights.  People here in the west are killed every year over this exact thing - who owns the water rights.  Most of the killing come from irrigation users stealing each others water.  Most of the killings occur when Mr. Smith hit Mr. Jones over the head with his shovel.  That is why I think we need to regulate shovels, guns, rakes and pitch forks........bombs and vile words.       

When I read the whole article, I had to agree with the courts.  Yet the State of Oregon Water Resources Board made a couple grievous errors.  One they allowed the water use permits - three of them to be issued.  Apparently without research who had the water rights to this stream and type.  The next mistake they made was allowing the the damming and diverting some thirty seven years ago.  This is not a new law nor are water rights.

Another part of the law - Who has right to the water from a spring even if it is on your property?  It very well might not be you.  The creek that runs through your property most likely is yours only to look at as Mr. Harrington has found out.  You can have an irrigation canal or ditch running the length through the middle of your property and you can not use one drip of water from it.       
Proverbs 24:3-5 Through wisdom is an house builded; an by understanding it is established.  4 And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.  5 A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.

Squirl

I enjoy the topic.  Being from east of the Mississippi, I am used to riparian rights.  The west has a whole different view on water.  Some exceptions apply in Oregon.

Exempt uses of surface water include:
       
1. Natural springs: use of a spring that, under natural conditions, does not form a natural channel and flow off the property where it originates at any time of the year.
7. Rainwater: collection and use of rainwater from an artificial impervious surface (like a parking lot or a building's roof).

http://cms.oregon.gov/owrd/pages/pubs/aquabook_laws.aspx