An Oregon man, Gary Harrington, has been sentenced to 30 days in jail for of collecting rainwater – he surrendered Wednesday morning to begin serving his sentence.
This is how far gone our country is to a totalitarian state: a man can’t dig a big hole on his property and let rain fill it without going to jail.
Gary Harrington, the Oregon man convicted of collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his rural property surrendered Wednesday morning to begin serving his 30-day, jail sentence in Medford, Ore.
“I’m sacrificing my liberty so we can stand up as a country and stand for our liberty,” Harrington told a small crowd of people gathered outside of the Jackson County (Ore.) Jail.
Several people held signs that showed support for Harrington as he was taken inside the jail.
Harrington was found guilty two weeks ago of breaking a 1925 law for having, what state water managers called “three illegal reservoirs” on his property. He was convicted of nine misdemeanors, sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined over $1500 for collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his property.
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.
But Harrington says he is not diverting the state’s water — merely collecting rainwater and snow melt that falls or flows on his own property.
Source: /cnsnews.com
Photo: IMAGE NAME
So much time on their hands! If someone has so much time on their hands that they can look for such a law …. you get the point.
now the water pigs
why?????
so now there playing God
That is absolutely ridiculous! Rain comes from God not the government. This c**p has got to stop!
The law he violated was passed in 1925. Way before Oregon’s current liberal outlook. Even this “lives out in the boonies of Oregon” conservative knows you can’t restrain or divert the NATURAL flow of groundwater regardless of its source.
Did anyone commenting here know that it is actually LEGAL to collect rainwater in Oregon? It is, if you collect the runoff from your roof’s rain gutters, buckets and tubs, or those massive rainwater barrels. What is NOT legal is what Mr. Gary Harrington did…dig three massive holes (ponds) that has collected THIRTEEN MILLION GALLON of rainwater and snow runoffs. One of the ponds he has stocked with large-mouth bass and built 10 and 20 foot dams around it…without getting the required permits. Somehow that would seem to deprive other people around him of God-given rainwater. His issue was debated with the Oregon Water Board and they ruled against him and required him to breach the dams, drain the ponds, and allowed that he could collect rainwater and snow runoffs the usual way. he refused and was tried and convicted.
A “little” different perspective.
What I left out…this has been going on for TEN years. He was originally given probation, the ponds were drained. But following the end of his probation, Harrington REFILLED the ponds…business as usual. This guy is Oregon’s version of Cliven Bundy of Nevada…obeying only the laws that are NOT inconvenient to him.
That is just all kinds of wrong.
time for a real big change
How was that illegal? really stupid reasoning