permaculture

[Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>]

On Oct 26, 2012, at 9:58 PM, Frances and David wrote:

> http://worldtruth.tv/oregon-claims-state-ownership-over-all-rainwater/
> it’s coming up again
> and I’m wondering
> is this really as scary as it is made to look?

Not to worry. Do some Googling about this  if you want to get the facts. The 
guy was illegally and unwisely diverting and damming streams, not catching 
rain. A couple of paranoid "government is always evil" bloggers completely 
distorted what had happened. Most of what is in this article is untrue: for 
example, if you pave an area over a certain small size (varies by county), 
you must mitigate the runoff, get a permit, and deal properly with its impact 
on stream flow, contrary to what the article says. And the quoted state 
official does not say they own the rain or own the water, he says they 
regulate how water is handled by landowners--which means once it hits the 
ground and enters the surface and groundwater cycles. Big difference. 

Oregon allows rainwater harvesting without a permit in most circumstances. 
Once rain lands on the ground it is considered a common, regulated 
resource--like forests on public land--and cannot be held in quantity without 
a permit (garden ponds excepted), though it can be drained or sunk with 
swales without a permit in many cases. Overland flow (not rain!) cannot 
diverted from downstream--and from other users, and fish, and 
wetlands--without having your system okayed, which makes sense to me. Too 
many badly designed ponds have done too much damage to watercourses and 
wildlife, hence they tightened the permit process a while back.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com