More and more of our rights are being taken away and some crazy a** laws are being thought up to convict people of crimes and charging them with a misdemeanor or a felony.

For what reason is all this happening?  Some say its to make an example of those people to get their point across.  To me this sounds more and more like school yard bully and childish no its mine don’t touch BS.

This is what I’m talking about.  An Oregon Man Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail — for Collecting Rainwater on His Property.  WTF?  from what I read its saying this man Gary Harrington of Eagle Point, Oregon broke a law that was made in 1925.  This is what Oregon’s water law says.

Under Oregon law, all water is publicly owned. With some exceptions, cities, farmers, factory owners and other users must obtain a permit or water right from the Water Resources Department to use water from any source— whether it is underground, or from lakes or streams. Landowners with water flowing past, through, or under their property do not automatically have the right to use that water without a permit from the Department.

Now Mr. Harrington was catching rainwater and snow not taking the water from underground, lake, or stream sources.  so how does this law have anything to do with him?

Harrington said he applied for three permits to legally house reservoirs for storm and snow water runoff on his property. One of the “reservoirs” had been on his property for 37 years, he said.

Though the state Water Resources Department initially approved his permits in 2003, the state – and a state court — ultimately reversed the decision.

“They issued me my permits. I had my permits in hand and they retracted them just arbitrarily, basically. They took them back and said ‘No, you can’t have them,’ so I’ve been fighting it ever since,”

An administrator of 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.  Harrington, however, argued in court that he is not diverting water from Big Butte Creek, but the dams capturing the rainwater and snow runoff – or “diffused water” – are on his own property and that therefore the runoff does not fall under the jurisdiction of the state water managers, nor does it not violate the 1925 act.

An administrator of the Oregon water resource department says “The law that he is actually violating is not the 1925 provision, but it’s 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,”

That’s not cool.  So if I wanna buy or make a water barrel or build a water basin to collect rainwater and snow melt or I have to get permission first?

If Mr. Harrington is unsuccessful in his appeals, he will report to the Jackson County Jail to serve his sentence.  Mr Harrington said  “I follow the rules. If I’m mandated to report, I’m going to report. Of course, I’m going to do what it takes in the meantime to prevent that, but if I’m not successful, I’ll be there,”

Mr. Harrington says “ They’ve just gotten to be big bullies and if you just lay over and die and give up, that just makes them bigger bullies. So, we as Americans, we need to stand on our constitutional rights, on our rights as citizens and hang tough. This is a good country, we’ll prevail,”

This isn’t right for a state to claim rainwater and snow that is on your own property.  Lets all pray that Mr. Harrington is successful in his appeals and does not have to spend anytime in jail.

Good Luck Mr. Harrington

read the article I read here Mr. Harrington