California’s Big Water Plans; The End of Private Water Rights?

Jamie Lee

Drought-stricken California, which just had its driest January ever recorded, smashed another dismal record last month: the hottest February. This will be the 5th year in a row of historic drought in California, breaking a 120-year-old record.

California is the largest populated state in the country. One out of eight Americans reside in sunny, warming, no rain, CA. Our economy is recognized as the 8th largest in the world with Central Valley farmers producing some 42% of the nations food supplies for decades.

For the second year in a row the Federal Water Agency, which controls CA mountain snowpack runoff, announced that zero water would be allocated to the 3300 state water agencies that it has supplied water to from the Sierra Nevada Mountain ranges for the past 54 years. Until recently the state's “ice chest” had accounted for 44% of the state's annual water budget.

Rainwater Crimes: Man Gets Jail & Fines For Collecting On His Own Land

Water, water, everywhere - Nor any drop to drink.*

A case of the government seeking money and bondage from rural residents by purposely misconstruing an old law & bending definitions.

Activist Post

Gary Harrington had no idea that he was a water criminal under an obscure 1925 law until 2002 when state bureaucrats told him that his three reservoirs were illegal collection devices that were a crime against his community.

At first, Harrington complied and legally filed for three permits to keep the rainwater run-off within his 170-acre property, including one that had been on the property for 37 years. However, it appears that the Oregon government is adamantly against its citizens storing and using their own source of water. Although his permits were approved in 2003, the state court arbitrarily reversed their decision and was subsequently backed up by a county Circuit Court judge who ruled that he had illegally “withdrawn the water at issue from appropriation other than for the City of Medford.” (Source)

Even if the city of Medford did legitimately own all the water, Harrington has good standing when he points out that the law mentions only streams and tributaries, not water run-off formulated from the clouds.

Clearly, the Oregon government is sending the message that if a resident wants water, it had better be with their approval and by their means. But Oregon isn't the only place instituting rainwater tyranny. 

Is Your Governor For Sale to the EPA?

Cassandra Anderson
Morph City

Congress failed 3 times to pass laws (HR 2421, S. 1879 and S. 787) for federal control over almost all water, so the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers are declaring jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act.

Currently, waters with a 'significant nexus' to 'navigable waters' are covered under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The EPA is now trying to assert that the CWA "protects" (controls) traditional navigable waters, interstate waters, adjacent wetlands, tributaries, and 'other waters' which account for just about all water except swimming pools (see page 5).

Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator

In this video from 2009, Lisa Jackson admits that she doesn't know what the EPA jurisdiction is for navigable waters or wetlands, and then she says that she does need legislation to clarify the matter! That legislation has already failed 3 times because it is an affront to individualism and property rights. Additionally, several Supreme Court rulings limit EPA power.