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IPFS News Link • Property Rights

Oregon's criminalization of rainwater collection is now complete: Saving water ...

• http://www.naturalnews.com

(NaturalNews) Officials in Jackson County, Oregon have again shown their disrespect for private property rights, telling a local couple they must tear out a 40-year-old two-acre pond located on the property they bought two years ago.

Jackson is the same county that recently imprisoned and fined another area landowner, Gary Harrington, for illegally collecting rainwater – the county said the water contained in the lakes Harrington built on his property belonged to the Medford Water Commission, according to a 1925 state law.

Harrington vowed to fight the commission, but eventually served 90 days in jail and paid $1500 for the ponds he built on his property, before finally being forced to destroy the dams and drain the lakes.

Now Jon and Sabrina Carey are facing a similar dilemma after being told that their pond is also in violation of the law.

When the couple bought their 10-acre property two and a half years ago, the pond was a major motivation for purchasing it – in fact, the pond could be said to be its only valuable feature. "We didn't buy it for the double-wide," said Sabrina Carey.

Are the Careys being singled out for growing medical marijuana?

The Careys were only notified that the pond was in violation of the law after they attempted to comply with other regulations regarding medical marijuana cultivation – those who grow cannabis for medical purposes are required to identify the irrigation source.

In this case, the pond was listed as the water source, and that apparently raised a red flag with the county water authorities. The Jackson County Watermaster's Office sent the Careys a letter stating that they not only had no rights to the water in their pond, but had no right to a pond on their property to begin with.


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