water

Oregon criminalizes permaculture; claims state  ownership over all rainwater - ponds and swales restricted - jail time for  violators

MikeAdams.jpgSunday, July 29, 2012 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all  articles...)
1,731
Social-Print-Button.gifSocial-Email-Button.gifSocial-Share-Button.gif
OL-300x250-static.jpg
(NaturalNews)  There's nothing more refreshing than standing in a cool, summertime rain shower.  Or bathing in the warm sunlight on a crisp spring day. Or inhaling the cool  autumn air, fresh with the scent of turning leaves and pine needles. These  things -- rainwater, sunlight, air -- have long been assumed to be not only  free, but un-claimable. You can't claim to own the sunlight that falls on my  front yard, for example. A corporation can't claim intellectual property  ownership over the air that you breathe and demand you pay a royalty for  inhaling.
But today, Jackson County, Oregon says it owns YOUR rainwater,  and the county has sentenced a man to 30 days in jail and fined him over $1500,  for the supposed "crime" of collecting rainwater on his own  property.
The man's name is Gary Harrington, and he owns over 170 acres  of land in Jackson County. On that land, he has three ponds, and those ponds  collect rainwater that falls on his land. Common sense would say Gary has every  right to have ponds with water on his 170 acres of land, but common sense has  been all but abandoned in the state of Oregon.
Much like California,  Oregon is increasingly becoming a collectivist state. You didn't build that! The  government built that! You don't own that! The government owns that! That  rainwater that just fell on your land? That's the government's rainwater, and  you're going to jail if you try to steal from the government!
That's the  explanation from Jackson County officials, who initially granted Harrington  "permits" to build ponds back in 2003. Yes, in Oregon you actually need to beg  for permission from the government just to have a pond on your own land. But the  state of Oregon revoked his permits a few years later, after he had already  created the ponds, thus putting Harrington in the position of being a "water  criminal" who was "stealing" rainwater from the state.
Tom Paul,  administrator of the Oregon Water Resources Department, is an obedient water  Nazi. He insists, "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."
What he means, of course, is not that the water is  "public" water, but that it's government water. The government owns it,  and if you "steal" from the government by, for example, collecting rainwater off  your own roof, you will go to jail.
Thus, even when rainwater falls on  your own property, you don't own it! The government owns it. You didn't build  that! The government built that. That's not YOUR land, you only lease it from  the King, and by the way, your property tax is due again...
Harrington  said that he will never stop fighting the government on this issue. As reported  in CNS News: "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." (http://cnsnews.com/news/article/oregon-man-sentenced-30-days-jail-col...)

If states claim they own the rain, they may soon claim to own the sunlight,  too

Rainwater, it turns out, isn't the only thing that falls on your land.  Sunlight also falls on your land. Air resides above it, and minerals below  it.
If the state of Oregon already claims to own all the water that falls  on your land, what's to stop them from claiming ownership over all the sunlight,  too? Imagine a day when the state erects solar panels on your land, but  the electricity isn't yours to keep. You still have to pay for it, because the  sunlight belongs to the state, get it?
If you erect your own solar panels  on your own land, the state could then arrest you and charge you with "stealing"  state property. All those photons, you see, belong to the state. Once the state  declares sunlight to be "community property," you instantly become a criminal  for having solar panels on your  house.

Learn more:  http://www.naturalnews.com/036615_Oregon_rainwater_permaculture.html#ixzz222zXBr1c

E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of Earthchangers College to add comments!

Join Earthchangers College

Comments

  • that is ok..just call me kathy...sadly i agree with you..

  • Sorry about butchering your name.

  • Kazthleen  I believe it is coming to and end very soon

  • well it is the self appointed human gods of earth and sky..bow lowly beings at our presence...you do not have any rights...we control earth and sky...we OWN you ..this must end..

This reply was deleted.

Blog Topics by Tags

Monthly Archives